March 2022

In the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, solar developers added 3.2GW of new PV installations in India.

Australia’s first astronaut believes advances in solar and space technologies and a growing capability to build and launch reliable satellites means it is now not only possible, but economically viable to build a solar PV farm based in Earth’s orbit.

Sun Cable’s ambitious plans to build the world’s largest solar PV and battery energy storage project in Australia’s remote far north are a step closer to fruition after two of the nation’s richest men provided their backing for a $210 million capital raise.

Just hours after Australia’s oldest solar farm was announced as the best performing utility scale solar asset in the country, construction firm Tranex Solar revealed the energisation of one of the nation’s newest clean energy developments is “well underway”.

A new generation of solar-powered cars is set to be tested in the harsh Australian outback next year after organisers of the World Solar Challenge confirmed the international car racing event will make its return in 2023.

OnSight Technology has developed a tele-operated vehicle to clean solar arrays. It is equipped with a radiometric thermal imaging camera and an optical zoom camera backed by artificial intelligence. It has a range of 12 hours and a speed of 1.6 km per hour.

A Swedish research group has developed a device combining CIGS thin-film solar modules and an alkaline electrolyser based on a trimetallic cathodic catalyst made of nickel, molybdenum, and vanadium (NiMoV) and an anode made of nickel oxide (NiO). The electrolyser achieved an average solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency of 8.5% for stable operations during 100 hours.

Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a viable alternative to lithium-ion technology. Industrial heavyweights CATL and Reliance Industries, following the acquisition of UK-based sodium-ion specialist Faradion, are bent on bringing the technology out of the lab and into mass production. Against a backdrop of soaring prices and predicted shortfalls of lithium-ion battery materials, sodium-ion chemistry has never been more tantalising.

Renewables developer X-Elio has unveiled plans to build a massive 300MW solar farm and battery energy storage system near Wagga Wagga in south-western New South Wales as it looks to further cement its place on Australia’s renewable energy landscape.

Australia has set renewable energy records for the fifth consecutive year with new data showing clean energy accounted for nearly one-third of the electricity produced in the National Electricity Market in 2021, with the continuing roll out of rooftop solar PV spearheading the switch away from traditional fossil-fuel generation.