September 2021

The past week saw more records broken in the National Electricity Market (NEM), with instantaneous renewable generation hitting a record 59.8% in the afternoon of Sunday 19 September 2021, before breaking 60% for the first time on Monday 20 September 2021. Sunny weather across both days meant rooftop solar made up around half of renewable generation at this peak output, reducing operational demand and suppressing prices during the day.

The Australian-Singapore group behind a proposed 20 GW solar PV farm and 42 GWh battery energy storage project being developed in Australia’s remote far north has hinted other, similar-sized projects are already in the pipeline.

Representatives from some of Australia’s most prominent renewable energy companies have united in their criticism of the Energy Security Board’s proposal for consumers to pay conventional generators such as coal and gas power plants an extra fee for their capacity, not just the actual power they produce.

The German research institute has unveiled a novel interconnection technology for shingled PV modules that eliminates the need for electrically conductive adhesives and screen-printed busbars. It consists of an 8-μm-thick aluminium foil that is joined to the silicon nitride (SiNX) passivation via laser metal bond (LMB). When integrated in a solar module, the efficiency of the new interconnector improved by 0.7%.

The last of the New South Wales coal-fired power plants will be shut by 2040 at the latest after electricity gen-tailer EnergyAustralia announced it would bring forward the closure date of its 1.4 GW Mt Piper power station by two years.

Vattenfall is leading a Dutch consortium in a research project to assess whether agrivoltaics is also compatible with strip cropping. The company’s head of Solar Development NL, Annemarie Schouten, spoke with pv magazine about the first 0.7 MW pilot project under development in the northern Dutch province of Flevoland.

Australian energy utility AGL’s large-scale battery energy storage strategy has received a major boost with a 50 MW/100 MWh battery project planned for the outback city of Broken Hill getting the tick of approval from the New South Wales state government.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has confirmed Energy Developments Limited is poised to begin construction of a new solar farm and battery energy storage system that will more than triple the solar PV generation capacity at the Anglo-Australian multinational’s $2.6 billion bauxite mining operation at Weipa in far north Queensland.

The Australian Energy Regulator has filed a lawsuit against the Hornsdale Power Reserve, which is owned and operated by French renewable energy developer Neoen, alleging it failed to provide the grid security services it was paid to deliver.

Operated by Gasunie, the underground storage facility is located near Veendam in the province of Groningen and should be fully operational in 2026. Tests will be run until spring 2022.