New figures show Australians bought a record 85,000 home batteries in the first half of 2025. That’s almost three times more than the year before, and nearly fivefold growth since 2022.

The power mix in Southeast Asia is heavily reliant on coal and natural gas for baseload generation, with hydropower dominating in countries such as Laos and Cambodia. However, the region’s dependence on fossil fuels is increasingly challenged by rising energy import costs, growing regulatory and corporate pressure to cut emissions, and heightened concerns about energy security amid accelerating demand from industry and cities.

Australia’s energy story is at a turning point. Demand for electricity is rising rapidly as homes, industries, and transport systems electrify. The nation is also under pressure to cut emissions from its energy sector and elsewhere.

It’s increasingly common to hear from experts and the general public that the global shift away from fossil fuels is glacially slow, or even nonexistent but we’re already rocketing through the fastest energy transformation in human history.

As off-grid solar systems expand to serve remote and underserved communities worldwide, digitalisation has become a crucial need for efficient project development, implementation, and long-term sustainability. A new report from IEA PVPS Task 18 systematically explores digital tools across the entire off-grid energy project value chain, providing much-needed guidance for practitioners looking to optimise their operations.

Australia’s consumer watchdog has warned thousands of households to check their Tesla battery energy storage systems with a nationwide recall in place after reports of the manufacturer’s Powerwall 2 units catching fire and damaging homes.

Chinese solar giant Trinasolar’s plans to build a 1,000 MWh battery energy storage system in Victoria’s Kiewa Valley have been given the green light by the state government after being fast-tracked through its Development Facilitation Program.

Sixteen battery energy storage projects with a combined capacity of 4.13 GW / 15.37 GWh have been named as the winners of the Australian government’s latest Capacity Investment Scheme tender.

Researchers at Victoria’s Monash University have developed a new carbon-based material they claim allows supercapacitors to store as much energy as traditional lead-acid batteries, while delivering power much faster than conventional batteries can manage.

Western Australia’s Pilbara region could serve as a blueprint for the nation’s industrial decarbonisation with modelling showing a coordinated approach to the construction of energy infrastructure could save billions in costs and significantly reduce the land required.

The inverter is designed for three-phase grid configurations without using external transformers. It contains gallium nitride technology, a first for Enphase’s microinverters.

The Japanese company said the first pilot projects are being carried out in the Tokyo metropolitan area with the support of Japanese oil giant Eneos.

Australian photoluminescence imaging specialist Lab360 Solar will look to make the leap from lab to market with its drone-based PV inspection technology after landing $3.96 million in federal government funding.

Australia is on track to exceed its 2030 rooftop solar targets with a combined 1.1 GW of new capacity installed across 115,584 households and businesses in the first half of 2025.

Honeywell has launched its Ionic battery energy storage system with integrated controls and energy management. The system is designed to cut energy costs, stabilize the grid, and provide backup power.

Early results from a survey of Australia’s commercial and industrial solar industry reveal surging demand for battery energy storage systems and increasing service expectations.

The Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone has reached a new milestone with planning approval secured for network infrastructure upgrades that will enable an additional 1 GW of transfer capacity in that part of the grid.

Analysis of more than 6,000 rooftop PV connectors shows that tight wire bending radius, extra dirty connectors, and loose nuts are the most common failure causes.

Building-integrated PV specialist ClearVue Technology says the latest iteration of its solar vision glass delivers more than 66% additional energy output per square metre than its predecessor, while significantly reducing production complexity and costs.

The microinverter company has disclosed details on the architecture of its IQ Bidirectional EV Charger, which will be available for sale in the second half of 2026. It is reportedly able to deliver up to 11.5 kW of bidirectional power.

The Luxembourg startup’s newest product is a portable, dry and wet cleaning system with 2.45 m wide brushes, designed to be operated by a single person.

Nextracker has introduced NX PowerMerge, a 2 kV trunk connector-based eBOS solution for utility-scale solar projects, designed to cut connection points, simplify layouts, and lower project costs.

Western Australian graphene supplier First Graphene has reported the addition of its functionalised graphene product to perovskite solar cells has increased efficiency almost two-fold and reduced production costs by up to 80%.

The Tiger Neo 3.0 panel features an 85% bifacility factor that translates into 553-570 W of rear side power output, according to the Chinese manufactuer. The new product is claimed to be the “world’s most powerful solar module.”

Victoria has added a 100 MW battery energy storage system to its growing portfolio of grid-scale storage, marking the first deployment globally of the full Fluence, product ecosystem, with its OS7 operating system.

The Philippines-based renewables and energy storage developer Acen Australia says its 800 MW, 12-hour duration Phoenix pumped hydro energy storage project planned for central west New South Wales is on track to start generating power in the early 2030s.

Climate-focused venture capital firm Wollemi Capital has committed to investing more than $100 million to expand renewables developer MPower’s pipeline of mid-scale solar and battery energy storage projects after finalising its acquisition of the company.

Renewables developer X-Elio is seeking Australian government approval for a four-hour battery energy storage system to be built in southern New South Wales after scrapping plans to build a 72 MW solar farm at the site.

Budget supermarket chain Aldi is expanding its residential solar business, opening up sales of its rooftop PV and battery energy storage packages to customers in Australia’s eastern states after a trial in Victoria.

Tesla’s long-anticipated innovation in utility-scale battery storage has yielded two new products, marking a leap toward faster deployment, greater scalability, and higher energy density.