2023

The Australian government’s plan to establish a $15 billion (USD 10 billion) national reconstruction fund to support domestic manufacturing in future industries and reduce the nation’s dependence on imports has become a reality with the investment vehicle rubber stamped by both houses of parliament.

Another utility scale PV project is set to connect to the national grid with the Australian arm of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola announcing that the installation of solar panels at the 190 MW Avonlie Solar Farm is now complete.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) told Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue participants this week that USD 5.4 trillion ($8 trillion) of annual investment is needed to support the global shift to renewables. Kenyan President William Ruto, meanwhile, called for a fair energy partnership between Europe and Africa.

With many of the top choice land parcels for renewable development now taken, the question of where to put new projects in Australia is growing troublesome. Australian company Rela thinks it has a novel solution – one which rests on levelling the knowledge playing field between landowners and developers. “If the counter party is your sole source of knowledge about this whole [renewable] ecosystem, of course you’re hesitant,” director Michael Katz tells pv magazine Australia.

Australian battery manufacturer Redflow has inked a deal that will see it supply its “non-lithium” energy storage technology to clean energy outfit Ameresco which is looking to develop integrated solar and zinc-bromine flow battery solutions for its customer base throughout North America and Europe.

Construction of the New South Wales section of Australia’s largest energy transmission project has reached a major milestone with the first of an estimated 1,500 new transmission towers that will form a key element of the $2.3 billion (USD 1.53 billion) EnergyConnect project installed near Buronga in the state’s far west.

Record numbers of battery energy storage systems were installed in Australian homes and businesses in 2022 with energy industry consultancy SunWiz reporting more than 47,000 residential batteries were installed across the country last year, a 55% increase on the previous year.

A consortium led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) will test grid-forming inverters at a large-scale PV facility in southern Germany. The aim of the first tests is to examine the performance of the devices under real operating conditions, stress factors, and typical stress profiles.

The Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka now account for more than 50% of the nation’s cumulative installed solar capacity.

Western Australia’s regional utility, Horizon Power, has bought a 50% stake in local solar company West Australian Alternative Energy.