2024

The Australian, Tasmanian and Victorian governments have signed off on a new ownership agreement to deliver the contentious Marinus Link high-voltage Tasmania-Victoria interconnection project.

The main cost of an electric vehicle is its battery. The high cost of energy-dense batteries has meant EVs have long been more expensive than their fossil fuel equivalents. But this could change faster than we thought.

British developer Lightsource bp’s plans to build the biggest solar farm and battery energy storage system on any of Australia’s main electricity grids has a green light to proceed after securing environmental approval from the Australian government.

Victorian electricity distributor Powercor has identified a clutch of towns in the state’s central highlands region as possible hosts for community-scale microgrids as it works to deliver improved energy security and reliability for customers across the state.

Energy storage specialist Lochard Energy has secured a $2 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency that will underpin a feasibility study into large-scale underground storage of green hydrogen in southwest Victoria.

Western Australian regional energy provider Horizon Power will trial two novel long-duration energy storage technologies – including a zinc-bromine flow battery provided by Queensland manufacturer Redflow – as it seeks to identify new energy storage solutions for off-grid communities dealing with high levels of solar and extreme weather.

Investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners’ plan to build a multi-billion-dollar polysilicon production plant in north Queensland to supply solar panel and battery manufacturers has received a major boost with the state government clearing the way to fast-track the project.

Mining and energy major Fortescue says the performance of an electric excavator operating at its Cloudbreak mine site in Western Australia’s is continuing to improve but is at times already performing better than its diesel equivalent.

Chinese manufacturer JinkoSolar says its solar module shipments reached 78.5 GW in 2023. This year, it says it hopes to sell up to 110 GW of panels.

The first installations featuring the Tesla Powerwall 3 are currently being completed in the United States, with the company promoting a fully integrated solar-plus-storage and electric vehicle (EV) residential system, with big backup power capacity. While the first Powerwall created a new market segment, the latest iteration enters a marketplace in oversupply.