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Australian homes and businesses added 2.6 GW of rooftop solar in 2025, pushing the national total to 28.3 GW—surpassing the country's entire 22.5 GW coal-fired generation fleet. While solar installation volumes cooled by 15% to roughly 255,000 units as the market matures, the energy storage sector saw unprecedented growth driven by the federal government's $7.3 billion 'Cheaper Home Batteries' program. A record-breaking 183,245 battery units were installed in the second half of 2025 alone, a four-fold increase year-on-year that nearly matched the total sales of the previous five years combined.

As of December 2025, India has installed 2,085,514 rooftop solar systems under the "PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana" initiative, benefiting over 2.6 million households and disbursing INR 147.7 billion in central subsidies. Gujarat tops the state rankings with over 515,000 installations, followed by Maharashtra (391,887) and Uttar Pradesh (326,386). Launched in February 2024, this demand-driven scheme aims to eventually cover 10 million households, with the government projecting it will reduce carbon emissions by 720 million metric tons over the systems' 25-year lifespan.

Indonesia’s solar capacity reached 1.49 GW in 2025 after adding 546 MW, a growth largely fueled by commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop installations as businesses seek decarbonization. However, the country missed its revised renewable energy target of 17–19%, achieving only 15.75%, primarily due to significant failures in state utility PLN’s procurement; PLN aimed for 777 MW of new utility-scale solar but delivered far less. With the residential market hampered by the abolition of net metering and utility-scale projects facing execution delays, the 2026 outlook hinges on a new rooftop quota system, which isopening with 485 MW in January, and a massive, albeit developmental, government initiative to deploy 100 GW of solar minigrids.

The United States and India reached a pivotal trade agreement on February 3, 2026, reducing reciprocal tariffs on Indian solar modules and energy storage from 25% to 18%. Crucially, the US also rescinded a separate 25% penalty tariff linked to India's trade with Russia, effectively dropping the total tariff burden on Indian exporters from roughly 50% to 18%. In exchange, India has committed to purchasing $500 billion in American energy and technology over five years and pivoting its energy imports away from Russia.

Chile installed 1,127 MW of photovoltaic capacity in 2025, bringing its cumulative total to 11,634 MW. While this marks a slowdown compared to the 2.14 GW added in 2022 and 1.65 GW in 2023, solar energy has solidified its dominance, now accounting for 31.1% of national electricity generation. Overall, Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) sources surpassed a major threshold, making up 50.8% of the country's total power mix. The sector's future remains robust, with over 4.1 GW of renewable capacity currently under construction and a massive 10.5 GW pipeline 2hich valued at $26.5 billion are awaiting environmental approval.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled that U.S. investment and production tax credits (ITC/PTC) under the Inflation Reduction Act violate global trade rules by discriminating against Chinese products. The decision targets the 'Domestic Content Bonus' which favors U.S.-made goods over imports.

India’s Union Budget 2026-27 emphasizes domestic manufacturing competitiveness and long-term energy resilience, allocating INR 22,000 crore for the PM Surya Ghar rooftop scheme and INR 5,000 crore for PM-KUSUM. The budget bolsters the supply chain by extending customs duty exemptions on capital goods for lithium-ion battery production and critical mineral processing, while removing the 7.5% duty on sodium antimonate for solar glass. Additionally, it earmarks INR 20,000 crore over five years for Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) technologies and proposes dedicated "rare earth corridors" in four states to secure input materials. However, duty exemptions for silicon used in wafers and cells are set to lapse in April 2026, signaling a push for deeper domestic value addition.

Bulgaria deployed 1,416 MW of solar "last year" (2025), marking its third consecutive year above the 1 GW threshold and pushing cumulative capacity to nearly 6 GW. The market is overwhelmingly dominated by utility-scale projects (90% of additions), which are increasingly being hybridized with battery storage to mitigate price cannibalization—exemplified by major projects like the Tenevo and Selanovtsi hybrid plants. While the residential sector lags due to regulated pricing, the Association for Production, Storage and Trading of Electricity (APSTE) forecasts a record-breaking 2026 with 2.5 GW of solar expected to come online. However, developers face a significant hurdle in the form of recently hiked eco-taxes and recycling fees, which are currently 5 to 10 times higher than EU norms.

Brazil failed to utilize nearly 20% of its solar and wind generation in 2025, resulting in an estimated financial loss of BRL 6.5 billion, according to Volt Robotics. The report highlights a structural shift where excess supply, rather than scarcity, is now the primary risk, causing average generation cuts of 4,021 MW. Critical grid stress events jumped to 16 days (up from just one in 2024), with "Sunday mornings" identified as the most vulnerable time due to low demand clashing with peak renewable output. The curtailment was most severe in the "triangle" of Minas Gerais, Ceará, and Rio Grande do Norte, prompting calls for dynamic tariffs and grid reforms to manage the mismatch between rapid renewable expansion and transmission limits.

Recently, Tesla announced the launch of its new residential photovoltaic modules, the Tesla Solar Panel (TSP-415 and TSP-420), alongside their dedicated installation systems. Designed specifically for integration with Tesla solar inverters and Powerwall 3, these components enable a fully Tesla-integrated closed-loop system encompassing power generation, energy storage, management, and consumption.

On 30 January, Baichuan Changyin (300614) released its 2025 performance forecast, reporting that during the reporting period, the company suspended investment in the Zhejiang Deqing heterojunction cell photovoltaic project and proactively optimised its R&D strategic layout, postponing the advancement of the pilot line for the Shanghai heterojunction cell photovoltaic R&D project.

Jiangsu Zhongke Panyao Technology Co., Ltd. is expected to formally register and commence operations in mid-February 2026, with full-scale routine operations commencing on 1st March. The company will be based in the Industrial Cluster Zone of Yancheng High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, leveraging the region's industrial support advantages for its development. Moving forward, the company will prioritise the construction and implementation of three pilot production lines for flexible perovskite photovoltaics (300×400 mm²), concentrating on the research, development, testing, and market deployment of flexible perovskite modules and various end-use products.

[SMM Silicon-Based PV Morning Meeting Summary: Module Prices Slightly Raised, Polysilicon Market Sluggish] Last week, domestic module prices saw a slight increase, but recently, transaction prices for some top-tier enterprises in certain segments showed a slight pullback. Currently, there are still instances of low-price shipments in the market, and competitive bidding activity is beginning to rise. In the centralized segment, there have been no transactions so far, but enterprises have shown an intention to raise prices, and it is expected that bidding prices for some upcoming projects will increase. Current distributed high-efficiency Topcon modules are quoted at 0.735 Yuan/W (183), 0.758 Yuan/W (210R), and 0.761 Yuan/W (210N), while centralized high-efficiency Topcon modules are quoted at 0.716 Yuan/W (182/183) and 0.736 Yuan/W (210N).