The International Solar Energy Society explains how Australia’s rapid expansion of solar and wind energy has not increased wholesale electricity prices, which have remained stable since 2016. Rooftop solar, now widespread and highly cost-effective, provides the country with resilient, low-emission power, making all-electric homes increasingly independent from the grid.

Over the weekend the federal government announced major changes to its $2.3 billion home battery subsidy program. The changes include nearly $5 billion in extra funding and adjustments to the financial support provided for different-sized batteries. They follow recent reporting that the program is subsidising unnecessarily large home batteries and blowing out in cost.

Post-COP30 analysis has centred on the contentious debate over fossil-fuel phase-out wording. Yet the most significant development for the solar sector was not part of the negotiating text at all.

The Australian electricity industry has transformed over the past two decades, driven by the rise of household solar and other renewable energy sources. Since 2010, supported by government incentives and improving technology, rooftop solar installations have surged.

The federal government’s $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program is subsidising unnecessarily large energy storage systems and blowing out in cost.

The first stage of the biggest approved battery project in Australia is now fully operational with Origin Energy announcing the initial stage of the 700 MW / 3,160 MWh battery energy storage system being built next to its Eraring coal-fired generator in New South Wales has commenced commercial operations.

More than 1.2 GWh of new behind-the-meter energy storage capacity was installed across Australia last month as households and businesses sought to take advantage of the federal government’s revised $7.2 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program.

Oil and gas explorer Pilot Energy has expanded its renewables ambitions, teaming with Hong Kong-headquartered SN Energy Group to jointly develop a hybrid solar and battery energy storage project on land in Western Australia previously earmarked for a 376 MW solar farm.

The Western Australian government has opened a new round of funding under its $37 million Clean Energy Future Fund with $9 million available to back “practical” clean energy projects that help diversify and decarbonise the state’s economy.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen insists Australia is on track to meet the government’s flagship target of 82% renewable energy by 2030 after solar, wind, and other renewables supplied about 50% of all power in the electricity grid in the final quarter of 2025.

Australia’s rooftop solar market climbed by 22% in the past month with the latest data revealing that 334 MW of small-scale PV capacity was installed on household and business roofs across the country in December 2025.

Australia’s largest energy transmission project has reached a new milestone with the last of more than 1,500 steel towers constructed along the 700-kilometre New South Wales stretch of the EnergyConnect development that links the state’s energy grid with those in Victoria and South Australia.

China has brought a 1 GW offshore solar power plant online off the coast of Dongying, Shandong province, combining PV with energy storage and aquaculture in what is now the world’s largest open-sea solar project in commercial operation.

The Western Australia government has committed $2.7 million to support a Traditional Owner group in its bid to develop solar and battery energy storage projects with up to 5 GW of capacity in the state’s Pilbara region.

BloombergNEF projects a slight year-on-year dip in global solar additions in 2026 as China’s growth eases, even as installations elsewhere continue to rise.

UNSW researchers developed an experimentally validated model linking UV-induced degradation in TOPCon solar cells to hydrogen transport, charge trapping, and permanent structural changes in the passivation stack. They show that thicker aluminum oxide layers significantly improve UV resilience by limiting hydrogen migration, offering clear guidance for more robust TOPCon designs.

China’s Longi says it will begin mass production of base-metal PV modules in the second quarter of 2026 as rising silver prices intensify pressure to reduce metallisation costs.

University of Newcastle researchers have developed a new separation technique that employs the same crushing and flotation principles used in mineral processing to recover more than 97% of silver from end-of-life solar panels.

Trina Solar says new certified results in perovskite-crystalline silicon tandem cells and modules demonstrate progress toward industrial-scale next-generation PV.

Repurposed electric vehicle batteries have been used for the energy storage component of a solar and battery project that is now helping power operations at carmaker Nissan Australia’s aluminium casting plant in Victoria

Wood Mackenzie’s first-half 2025 solar inverter ranking finds the top 10 leading inverter manufacturers have a 71% global market share.

The Australian firm has introduced single-phase 5 kW and 6 kW AC output storage systems, as well as three-phase 10 kW and 12 kW models. Storage capacities of the new products range from 5 kWh to 40 kWh.

The result relates to the company’s Comet 3N modules and has been confirmed by independent testing agency TÜV Nord in Germany.

The Chinese manufacturer has launched a new series of three-phase hybrid inverters ranging from 80 kW to 100 kW. The new products feature eight MPPTs with up to 42 A input current.

The research group led by Professor Martin Green has not published yet Version 67 of the solar cell efficiency tables, due to production delays. Green, however, has agreed to comment on some of the results to be added in the upcoming edition.

Renewables developer and electricity retailer Flow Power has reached financial close on its Bennett’s Creek battery energy storage project being developed in the heart of Victorian coal country.

Venergy Solar has completed what it says is one of the largest embedded network solar projects in Australia with 1,120 rooftop PV systems installed across four of property developer Stockland’s land-lease communities in Victoria.

The first solar-battery hybrid facility approved in the National Electricity Market, the $190 million Quorn Park Solar Hybrid project developed by Potentia Energy in New South Wales, has been energised.

The Australian Energy Regulator has released its third annual export services network performance report on facilitating consumer energy resources in Australia’s two-way energy system.

Electricity distributor Ausgrid will unlock 1 GW of transfer capacity from the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone by upgrading its existing distribution poles and wires, instead of building of building new ones.