Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. Octopus Investments Australia’s Investment Director of Energy Markets, Lumi Adisa, takes a Lion King-themed deep dive into New South Wales to find out what comes after coal.

Car subscription services are not considered in government EV policies at either a state or federal level in Australia, yet studies show they are growing as a preferred way to access a good, clean drive.

The first week of the United Nations climate talks in Glasgow are drawing to a close. While there’s still a way to go, progress so far gives some hope the Paris climate agreement struck six years ago is working.

Here’s the rundown of everything you need to know about the upcoming Glasgow Climate Summit.

The most striking feature of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s long-term emissions reduction plan outlined on Tuesday is not the long-telegraphed commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, or the promise of a $20 billion clean energy program (around 0.2% of national income annually).

The sky is the limit. Fortunately, this expression does not apply to current prices for PV panels, which have recently declined, following a continuous rise since the beginning of the year. Whether this situation holds, or whether prices drop further in the coming months is hard to say at the moment, writes Martin Schachinger of pvXchange. Polysilicon prices and thus wafer and cell prices could be in for a slight decline. However, a decisive movement in module prices in general is unlikely before the fourth quarter.

Processing nightmare, or product opportunity? Impending five-minute settlement comes at a difficult time for energy retailers. Software from across the ditch could help highlight the benefits and opportunities of more solar and a forecast uptick in battery energy storage.

The latest global PV industry outlook published by trade group SolarPower Europe, has indicated tight supply of the solar panel raw material is expected to persist this year but the trade body said it would be unlikely to drive further price rises.

Despite the growth, one-off exceptional events in the fourth quarter hit the solar EPC’s overall fiscal performance. These included a prime subcontractor going bankrupt in Australia, rising module prices, and increased freight costs.

More than 100 Australian businesses, including some of the country’s largest, have banded together to put pressure on government to commit at least 1% of GDP to a green energy recovery in the May budget and to ensure a more equitable transition to renewables for marginalised Australians.

As Australia, like much of the world, battles shortfalls in supply with solar module prices rising and Chinese companies’ stocks decreasing, the country’s only manufacturer, Tindo Solar, has opted to release emergency stocks. Likewise, Chinese giant Longi is working to guarantee supply for Australia, saying its vertical integration has afforded it extra security.

Members of both the upper and lower houses of Parliament are moving to ban the importation of goods made with forced labour by introducing a bill which, if passed, would have profound repercussions for Australia’s solar industry.

Following years of lobbying, the Standards Australia Committee has removed the requirement for rooftop solar installations to include a DC isolator.

Brisbane’s eleXsys Energy has won a government grant which will allow the company behind Australia’s largest grid-connected microgrid to build its manufacturing base here in Australia.

Rooftop solar drove two negative demand events in South Australia on Sunday, November 21, events which analysts are describing as a world-first for a gigawatt-scale power system.

The International Energy Agency predicts that India will record the world’s fastest growth in energy consumption from buildings through 2040. The energy demand could create a big market for solar installers and equipment providers, particularly in the commercial and industrial sector. While building codes now include provisions for renewable energy integration, effective implementation will be key to ensuring compliance, reports Uma Gupta.

Kallis Energy Investments is proposing a whopping 6 GW renewable hydrogen project in South Australia, with founder Terry Kallis telling pv magazine Australia the project will not seek to connect its 3 GW of planned solar and wind assets to the already congested grid.

Greek company Mytilineos has reached financial close on all three of its 40 MWp solar farms in New South Wales, marking an important milestone in the company’s strategic move into the Australian market.

After a controversial beginning, the Victorian Solar Homes Program recovered and is now setting new records. From the early days when solar installers were forced to protest due to the unintended effects of the policy’s first iteration, to today when more than 165,000 homes have solar as a result of the program, it is fair to say that Victoria is headed into a bright summer.

Japanese energy company Sinanen offers a scalable solar carport that can host a minimum of four vehicles and can be deployed in the parking areas of factories and commercial buildings. The basic system is offered with a minimum capacity of 10.80 kW.

Queensland continues to attract massive hydrogen industry factories, with LAVO Hydrogen Technology today announcing it would establish a fuel cell manufacturing facility just south of Brisbane.

The Queensland government will put “at least” $10 million towards constructing a common-user facility to process vanadium from the state’s vast deposits, allowing multiple small mining operations to access the facility with the ambition of kickstarting downstream battery storage industries in the state.

English manufacturer Aceleron claims every component of its devices can be accessed for replacement, repair or recycling, with the business’ co-founder stating the aim is to ensure ‘100% of the materials in our batteries will continue to be used for as long as possible – preferably forever.’

Developed by a spin-off of Dutch research institute TNO, the battery is claimed to offer higher energy density, longer lifespan and increased safety compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries. It will initially be applied in wearables and electric cars.

Developed by a U.S.-based start-up, the new manufacturing process is claimed to reduce silver consumption and improve solar module performance by up to 3 watts. It consists of connecting sub-cells in series within a single cell in order to increase the device voltage and without requiring cells to be physically broken and rewired.

Brisbane-based startup Evos has unveiled its first electric vehicle charger, boasting simple installation and transportability as well as the company’s own energy management software. The charger will be available from next month.

Fortescue Future Industries, founded by billionaire Andrew Forrest, has already received planning approval for its 2 GW electrolyser factory at Gladstone despite announcing the plan just five weeks ago.

The Indian authorities have announced plans to provide more funding to help more manufacturers under its production-linked incentives scheme, which is designed to support gigawatt-scale manufacturing of high-efficiency solar modules.

In a new report, experts from the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power System Programme (IEA-PVPS) have assessed the economical and environmental benefits of repairing and reusing or replacing solar modules that are not complying with a 30-year expected lifetime. They found that reusing offers the best environmental impact in all cases, while the profitability of this option is currently guaranteed only by rooftop PV under certain conditions. As for large-scale solar, module replacement remains the most competitive option.

Should heterojunction solar technologies be temporarily shelved? Could copper plating replace screen-printed silver conductive surfaces in cells? Why are tandem cells a likely successor to PERC? Brett Hallam recently sat down with Natalie Filatoff in Sydney to explain the findings of a new study by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) that sought to answer these controversial questions.

According to Chinese researchers, using abandoned coal mine goaves for pumped hydro facilities in combination with large scale solar and wind is not only technically feasible but can also provide an efficiency of 82.8% in yearly operation cases. They applied the model to wind and solar-rich northwestern and southwestern China.

The battery was fabricated by Chinese scientists with a low-cost electrolyte made of a derivative of TEMPO, which is a well-known electroactive aminoxyl radical used with several applications in chemistry and biochemistry. According to the researchers, the battery shows high redox potential and is crossover-free.

COP flack for Australia’s insubstantial and unstructured response to decarbonisation has not made the country more attractive to investors. Has our first-mover status cruelled our investability, and what could the next Federal Government do to revive investor confidence?

Western Australia leads the world in successfully implementing renewables-based energy generation for far-flung customers. Unique joint venture and pioneer in the field, Boundary Power, has been widely recognised for its innovations and is ready to repeat its SAPS successes across Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

French energy giant Engie has developed a transfer function method based on a model used to assess PV plant variability. Its researchers claim that the new approach does not overestimate the levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of an alkaline electrolyser powered by offgrid solar, finding that in Australia green hydrogen produced with such systems may already be cost competitive with blue hydrogen.