Critics of renewable energy projects are quick to argue that building solar and wind farms on productive farming and grazing land has a deleterious effect on Australia’s agricultural production.

There are thousands of extraordinarily good pumped hydro energy storage sites around the world with extraordinarily low capital cost. When coupled with batteries, the resulting hybrid system has large energy storage, low cost for both energy and power, and rapid response. Storage is a solved problem.

As the world races to decarbonise, China is leading the way. It committed more than $145 billion (USD 100 billion) in outbound foreign direct investment since 2023 across decarbonisation sectors including solar, wind, batteries, grid, new energy vehicles, hydro and green hydrogen.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has revealed the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan relies on many of Australia’s coal-fired power stations running for at least another 12 years – far beyond the time frame officials expect the ageing facilities to last.

What happens to a solar PV module after its expected 25-year operational life? With about 2 TW of rooftop and utility-scale PV already deployed worldwide, and a large number of them being retired before operating for 15 years, the amount of PV modules being discarded is growing every year.

The road to clean energy for remote communities can be long and hard, but it is possible, and First Nations people are ensuring their communities share in the benefits of Australia’s clean energy transition.

Australian battery recycling company Envirostream, a subsidiary of Perth-headquartered advanced raw materials company Lithium Australia, has signed an exclusive recycling agreement with repurposed electric vehicle battery manufacturer Infinitev.

The International Energy Agency’s Renewables 2024 report has forecast Australia will add 53 GW of renewable capacity between 2024-2030, with a nearly 65% share being from a mix of utility, rooftop and green hydogen production solar.

Australian renewable energy and battery storage development company MPower Group has sold its 4.99 MW Narromine renewable energy project in New South Wales to Singapore-based Ampyr Distributed Energy via conversion of project funding into equity in the project.

The International Energy Agency says renewables are on course to meet almost half of global electricity demand by 2030, with solar accounting for 80% of the growth in capacity.

China-headquartered solar and energy storage solutions company Trinasolar is developing a dual-use site with New Zealand-based engineering, procurement and construction company Kiwi Solar and commercial solar solutions company Trilect.

Ten large-scale solar farms planned for New Zealand’s North and South islands are among 22 renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 3 GW that have been listed for inclusion in the government’s “one-stop shop” fast-track approvals process.

London-headquartered renewable energy developer Lightsource bp Australia has been granted federal government approval for its 450 MW Goulburn River Solar Farm, located in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, 28 kilometres southwest of Merriwa.

Scientists have designed a new building-integrated PV system that uses 30 mm of phase change material on each side of the wall. The array reportedly achieved superior thermoelectric coupling performance compared to reference BIPV systems without PCM.

Allied Green Ammonia has awarded Swedish outfit Afry the owner’s engineering assignment for the renewable power plant that is to support its large-scale green hydrogen to ammonia production project being developed in the Northern Territory.

Brisbane-headquartered Pan Pacific Recycling has begun materials recovery from end-of-life solar panels as part of a Smart Energy Council stewardship pilot, which aims to fast track a repurposing solution for the rest of Australia’s mounting solar waste problem.

A 1 MW community-owned battery energy storage system could earn the operators up to $250,000 in revenue each year in Australia according to new analysis from Ireland-headquartered smart energy company GridBeyond.

Australian mining and green energy major Fortescue plans to launch its manufacturing efforts in the United States by producing a high-voltage battery pack with up to 34 kWh capacity built around the company’s scalable battery module technology.

The latest supply chain map from Sinovoltaics tracks growth across Southeast Asia, with module capacity reaching 78.8 GW, and 58 production projects tracked.

Australian concentrated solar thermal energy specialist Vast Renewables has announced key contracts for its proposed Solar Methanol 1 green fuels project being developed in South Australia.

The India-based module producer said its new panels have a power conversion efficiency of up to 23.1% and a temperature coefficient of -0.24% per C.

A global renewable energy jobs review has found Australia could achieve a 5 GW module capacity on the back of new domestic upstream facilities but requires a $7.8 billion investment over the next decade, and initially, an expatriate workforce to achieve it.

United States-headquartered solar module manufacturer SEG Solar has started building 10 N-type cell production lines in Indonesia’s Kawasan Industri Terpadu Batang industrial park, 390 kilometres east of Jakarta.

The latest irradiance sensor solution from Japan-based EKO Instruments provides continuous measurements in the field. Well-suited for bifacial PV systems, it supports the measurement of global horizontal irradiance, diffuse horizontal irradiance and direct normal irradiance, even in reflective and cloudy conditions.

Solar mounting solutions provider Clenergy has deployed two of its fixed-tilt ground-mounted products as part of a 32 kW PV system that is helping power a mobile communication antenna on a remote mountain peak in Tasmania.

Western Australian government-owned utility Synergy has installed the first 80 of 640 containerised battery units assigned to its Collie battery energy storage system, located 16 kilometres northeast of coal mining town Collie and 200 kilometres south of Perth.

Queensland state-owned generation company Stanwell has boosted its energy storage portfolio with two new developments with a combined capacity of almost 650 MW entering its project pipeline.

West Australian gigafactory developer Auzvolt has applied for a stake in the $200 million Collie Industrial Transition Fund, which seeks to help the town’s workforce move from coal dependent employment into clean energy jobs.

Spain-headquartered clean energy developer X-Elio has received approval from the Australian government to proceed with construction of its proposed Queensland-based 350 MW Sixteen Mile Solar Farm and a 120 MW / 240 MWh battery energy storage system.

Queensland electricity utility CleanCo has set a new quarterly generation record at its 570 MW Wivenhoe Power Station, which outshines all previous production milestones since the station opened in 1984.