Eco Voice

By Jonathan Raymond EcoNews.com.au Australia’s clean energy transition has entered a new phase. As rooftop solar becomes mainstream and home battery storage moves rapidly from early adoption towards the mass market, one of the industry’s biggest challenges is no longer technology—it’s helping consumers understand how increasingly sophisticated energy systems actually work.

Land clearing for beef on the Northern Tablelands of NSW. NSW government data released on Tuesday shows land clearing, primarily for agriculture, has again increased across the state, with the Australian Conservation Foundation condemning it as a “broken promise” from the Minns Government. The latest Statewide Landcover and Tree Study (SLATS) shows clearing increased from 66,498 hectares in 2023 to more than 81,000 hectares in 2024.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) has made a huge number of wildlife records available to the public through the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Australia’s national biodiversity data infrastructure. The data deposit represents a major contribution to the Atlas, including valuable records of threatened species and information from remote and under-represented parts of Australia.

Strathalbyn BESS Lunio Energy, a utility-scale battery developer, has successfully commissioned its first Australian battery energy storage system (BESS) in South Australia with OptiGrid, an Australian battery optimisation and trading intelligence platform that is built for the National Electricity Market (NEM). The 20MWh BESS in Strathalbyn, South Australia is now participating in the NEM using OptiGrid’s OptiBidder platform to optimise energy trading and market bidding.

O-cell load testing on-site in Tasmania. Fugro supports McConnell Dowell and project partners on the New Bridgewater Bridge Project in Tasmania, Australia’s largest transport infrastructure development. The 1.28‑kilometre bridge will replace the existing lift‑span bridge over the River Derwent, providing a modern and reliable crossing that connects key freight and passenger routes. Fugro is proud to contribute its knowledge and proprietary technology to such a landmark project.

Industrias data shows what proactive maintenance delivers, and how many systems are missing it. Industrias, Australia’s leading commercial solar and battery maintenance specialist, has released inspection data showing that almost one in four solar systems inspected contains at least one fault serious enough to affect performance or safety.

Global packaging supplier Detpak has opened a new manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, strengthening its ability to support major Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) customers with locally produced, paper-based packaging solutions.

The research team’s commercially sized indium-free tandem solar cell, which achieved a certified efficiency of 31 per cent using abundant tin oxide in place of scarce indium. Image: Monash University Monash University An international team of researchers has built the first high-performance, commercially sized tandem solar cell that doesn’t rely on the scarce and expensive metal, indium.

Tomoo Machiba, Vice Chair of the GRI GSSB, with Astrid Schomaker, UN Convention on Biological Diversity Executive Secretary, in Kumamoto Japan. GRI and its GSSB back ‘Kumamoto Declaration’ and the call for urgent, coordinated action to meet global biodiversity targets GRI has joined 85 signatories in endorsing the Kumamoto Declaration, a global call to accelerate action towards a nature-positive future, at the conclusion of the Global Nature Positive Summit in Kumamoto, Japan.

The first whales processed in Hvalfjörður Iceland during summer 2026 whale hunt. Photo: Micah Garen / Four Corners Media. Humane World for Animals Australia Dame Judi Dench and a host of other high-profile stars have written a letter urging Iceland to ban whale hunting, expressing their “deep sadness” that 18 fin whales have been slaughtered since this year’s hunt began last month.