The PV inverter market achieved record shipments in 2019, writes IHS Markit’s Miguel de Jesus, driven by booming shipments in key markets such as the United States, Spain, Latin America, Ukraine and Vietnam. Revenue rose rapidly, surpassing the $9 billion mark in 2019 for the first time.

Yesterday I received a call from the people at pv magazine who were preparing for the ‘Virtual Roundtables Europe 2020’ event on this week in Germany – i.e. Tuesday evening (now!) and Wednesday evening ‘NEM time’. I’m told the event will be recorded, with the recording available later to those who have registered, so get your skates on if interested.

Australia has certainly demonstrated its appetite for solar power. Now, with the average lifespan of a solar panel being approximately 20 years, many installations from the early 2000’s are set to reach end-of-life. Will they end up in landfill or be recycled? The cost of recycling is higher than landfill, and the value of recovered materials is smaller than the original, so there’s limited interest in recycling. But given the presence of heavy metals, such as lead and tin, if waste is managed poorly, we’re on track for another recycling crisis. A potential time bomb could present itself as an opportunity, however, if the global EV industry showed an interest in the recovered solar products.

The government’s Climate Solutions Fund offers little hope for financial-industry backers of a Paris aligned economic recovery writes Tim Buckley, Director of Energy Finance Studies with IEEFA Australasia

While covid-19 will cause a lot of short-term pain, it presents us with a unique opportunity to accelerate the clean energy transition.

The Clean Energy Council’s latest “Clean Energy Outlook – Confidence Index” shows growing investor confidence nationwide despite the continuance of federal policy ambiguity and the economic impact of Covid-19. Investors and executives singled out NSW in particular as being among the most attractive states for renewable investment thanks to its positive statements and clear strategy.

Every crisis is a crossroads, and Australia is certainly at a crossroads. This week, a host of climate, development and investment leaders are backing Beyond Zero Emission’s green scaffolded Million Jobs Plan of Covid-19 economic recovery.

Despite unprecedented economy-wide impacts brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, SA Water’s planned $300 million solar and energy splash in 2020 has managed to stay on track. Not only do the utility’s ambitions for a zero energy cost future remain within reach, but the utility is already planning more solar.

Canberra’s first community solar farm, the Majura Valley Community Solar Farm, is a step closer to reality after Epho signed on to design and construct the farm. The solar farm is the development project of SolarShare, a group of local community investors.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s announcement of the third tranche of projects to have fast-tracked assessments as part of the state’s effort to boost the economy in response to the impact of Covid-19 includes the program’s first large-scale solar farm, the 72MW(DC)/60MW(AC) Yanco Solar Farm.

Woolworths is looking to further reduce its emissions by installing a 572 kW solar system atop its massive
Norwest Support Office in Bella Vista. However, the unique circumstances of the facility mean that solar developer Epho Commercial Solar is going to airlift the panels and system components onto the rooftop with a helicopter.

The Australian Defence Force is set to install a 1.9MW solar array at its Headquarters of Joint Operations Command outside Canberra. The General John Baker Complex is being expanded to cater to the growing needs of cyber and space operations and as such requires the energy resilience provided by solar PV.

A New Safe and Reliable Energy Storage and Conversion Technologies Research Hub is one of five grant recipients of the Australian Research Council’s funding for Industrial Transformation. The Hub will seek to develop new technologies in energy storage to eliminate the risk of fire, as well as addressing the environmental impact of current technologies. 

Western Australia is pioneering new strategies to manage its burgeoning rooftop-top solar resource. Next stop on its DER Roadmap? Engaging commercial and industrial energy users/producers in rewarding strategies for balancing generation and demand.

In its annual State of the Energy Market report, the Australian Energy Market Regulator has suggested that solar households should be asked to pay a network fee to be allowed to export energy to the grid.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has announced a major step forward in the West Murray Zone after it granted registration to the biggest solar farm in that troubled part of the grid.

The Swedish furniture giant has said it will turn one of its Australian superstores into its first 100% renewables-powered solar+storage retail project. Australia is also home to the company’s first expansion of its retail solar offering, Solstråle.

From today, the City of Sydney will run entirely on renewable energy generated from wind and solar farms in regional NSW.

From today, Adelaide’s council-owned properties will be run entirely on renewable energy as part of a power purchase agreement inked with Flow Power.

The City of Newcastle, home to the world’s busiest coal harbour, has seen its 5 MW solar farm generate double its projected revenue in the first six months of operation. The profits are a resounding endorsement and vindication of the Council’s audacious 100% renewable generation achievement.

Energy storage is in high demand, to help manage a growing proportion of renewable energy in global electricity grids, to free off-grid communities from the tyranny of diesel, and to enable the aspirations of people not yet connected to a power supply. These two promising technologies have reached important milestones…

Adelaide-based renewable and microgrid energy solutions firm AZZO is taking advantage of its strong Australian root system to expand into the U.S. market. 

Can this technology be commercialized? A partnership between Siemens Energy and EnergyNest to develop thermal storage solutions together is the latest development in an industry with lots of potential, but little practical application thus far.

The University of New South Wales Sydney and Providence Asset Group are teaming up to form the Hydrogen Energy Research Centre, a university-to-industry institute toward the translation of hydrogen research into commercial production as Australia looks to become a world leader in hydrogen exports.

Why did the chicken cross the road? It wanted to get to an electrolyser and close the loop on a persistent dilemma: what comes first — a critical mass of hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles, or the infrastructure of hydrogen production and refuelling opportunities that will see those vehicles confidently hit the tar?

The Chinese-Canadian company has unveiled a range of high-power modules which are set to go into mass production by early next year. The series includes a commercial and industrial rooftop-dedicated product offering a reported 405 W.

An international research group has developed a self-cooling PV system featuring a 250 W 60-cell polycrystalline module and a thermal collector attached to the back side of the panel. The cleaning tech is based on a microcontroller programmable integrated circuit, which controls a rotating DC motor.

New research from Wood Mackenzie shows that overall system costs for installations using mono PERC modules are set to fall by as much as 20% by 2025.

A very small number of PV systems installed on Australian rooftops are considered to be potentially unsafe, the Clean Energy Regulator’s new report finds. Water entering DC isolators is identified as the greatest risk and the most common cause of PV system failures.

U.S.-owned business intelligence firm Wood Mackenzie has attempted to evaluate the market opportunities offered by the repowering of solar projects around the world which feature inverters which are 10 years old – as well as those which will expire ahead of time.

A key lithium-ion battery cathode material could be produced in Western Australia, a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) feasibility study has found. The study, released by the WA state government today, investigated whether superior nickel-rich nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) can be produced cost effectively and sustainably in the state in which nine of the ten mineral elements required for lithium-ion battery cells are present.

Infigen Energy on Tuesday recommended a revised offer from Iberdrola to its shareholders, after the Spanish renewable energy giant waived conditions of its takeover bid.

While investor appetite for large-scale battery storage is rapidly growing, market arrangements need to be amended to streamline the integration and operation of big batteries on the National Electricity Market, finds an analysis by the Clean Energy Council.

The Western Australia government has installed the state’s sixth grid-connected community PowerBank battery, taking the total number of shared battery storage systems on the Western Power network to 13.

French renewables developer Neoen has announced that final testing of the expanded 150 MW Hornsdale Power Reserve has kicked off. If the tests run smoothly, the extra power will be available to the market within weeks.