Solar and wind are being installed at a rate that is three times faster than all other new electricity sources combined. This offers compelling market-based evidence that PV and wind are now the most competitive and practical methods for deploying new generating capacity.

As flow battery technology comes of age, Australia’s capacity to mine the critical minerals required, and manufacture flow batteries has a promising future on the back of embracing automation and supported by government funding.

There are four key Lessons the renewable industry to take away from 2024, cover storage, solar, and everything in between

All Australian energy customers could have their electricity costs reduced if flexible exports were enabled country wide.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s plan for nuclear power in Australia has provoked a great deal of discussion and analysis – most of it critical, writes John Quiggin, a Professor of Economics at the University of Queensland.

West Australian energy company Powerhouse has completed the install of a 60 kVA, off-grid solar array in the state’s far north, to power a remote electric vehicle charger as part of the 7,000 kilometre long WAEV Network project.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has invested $100 million in the property development strategy of France-headquartered investment firm AXA IM Alts, which aims to embed sustainability into their Australian builds.

China’s REPT Battero has revealed plans to build a lithium-ion battery plant in Indonesia, targeting 8 GWh of annual production capacity in the first phase.

Envirostream Australia, a subsidiary of chemical company Livium, has signed an exclusive recycling agreement with Hithium Energy to recycle lithium-ion batteries supplied by Hithium to Lightsource bp’s Woolooga solar farm in Queensland.

Lodestone Energy has flicked the ‘on’ switch to it’s utility-scale agrivoltaic solar array on the North Island of New Zealand, making it the first in the country to connect directly to the national grid.

Solar energy will satisfy more than 50% of global energy demand within a decade according to a new modelling tool that also predicts solar costs will continue falling by 10% a year.

Brisbane Airport has announced it’s 100% powered by renewable energy from 10 MW of onsite solar generation sourced via 18,000 solar panels installed across the facility, plus a recent purchase of 100% renewable energy from state-owned generator, Stanwell.

Transgrid has confirmed the cost of the New South Wales section of Project EnergyConnect has climbed to $3.6 billion, well above the $1.82 billion price tag that was originally approved.

RACV has added virtual power plant (VPP) services to its catalogue of membership offerings and follows integration of the FCAS-friendly PowerSync platform with solar and battery installations at RACVs Torquay and Inverloch resorts in Victoria.

Australia’s rooftop solar market finished 2024 on a high with about 309 MW of monthly installations delivering one of the best December totals of recent years and putting the national trend back on the up.

Plans to build a new electricity transmission link between Tasmania and mainland Australia have progressed with Marinus Link Pty Ltd lodging a development application for a converter station to be built in Tasmania’s northwest.

Energy infrastructure provider GenusPlus Group has landed a $270 million contract to deliver a “critical” upgrade of Western Australia’s main electricity network as part of the state government’s plan to unlock existing renewable generation capacity, and allow the addition of new renewables to facilitate the retirement of coal-fired generation.

Australian-listed battery materials and technology company, Novonix, has bought land in Tennessee, USA, to expand existing operations there with a second mass production plant, funded in part with a $1.2 billion US Department of Energy loan.

Sparc Technologies’ South Australian green hydrogen pilot plant is on track to commence construction in early 2025, following a formal commitment to Stage 2 of the project with industry partners, and procurement of a linear Fresnal concentrated solar system.

University researchers have identified probable locations for critical metals needed to support a green economy by studying how critical metals accumulate at the margins of old cores of continents.

Aiko Solar has started production at its Jinan factory, its third facility for n-type all-back-contact solar modules. The plant is designed for 30 GW of solar cell and panel capacity, with the first 10 GW phase set to reach full output by late 2025.

Independent testing of JinkoSolar’s N-type TOPCon-based perovskite tandem solar cell has achieved a conversion efficiency of 33.84%, surpassing the company’s previous record of 33.24%,

In five key trends, pv magazine looks back over a year that saw PV module prices fall lower than many thought possible, while demand was restrained by grid congestion, among other challenges. Energy storage has had a strong year and geopolitics is seeing solar and battery manufacturing enter new regions as competition drives technical innovation.

The solar industry has dragged its heels on the issue of silver-dependence for cell metallisation, but China’s Jiangsu Xianghuan Technology (JXTC) is moving into commercial production with a copper plating process that overcomes many of the challenges that have limited interest from cell manufacturers.

A Trinasolar efficiency record of 27.08% has been announced for large-area high efficiency n-type fully passivated HJT solar cells, certified by Germany’s leading solar energy research lab.

The scope of Zen Energy’s fledgling collaboration with Taiwan’s HD Renewable Energy has expanded with the two parties launching a joint venture that is targeting the development of 400 MW of solar and 1 GW of energy storage capacity in Australia.

Big BESS is booming in Australia, with almost 5 GW of projects under construction last year, according Rystad Energy. While encouraging, the analyst reports that the volume remains insufficient to overcome growing rates of renewable curtailment. “We have around 3 GW operational at the moment, but about half of that is still in commissioning. So you still only have 1.5 GW on the market where the average load is 23 GW,” Rystad Energy’s David Dixon said.

Australian Vanadium Limited’s plan to establish a major vanadium mine in Western Australia’s mid-west have firmed up with its proposal receiving the tick of approval from the state’s Environmental Protection Authority.

Renewable energy developer Acen Australia is seeking federal government approval for a 100 MW solar facility and an 180 MW battery energy storage system to be built near Cooma in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains region.

The Australian Energy Market Commission has released a final determination to allow virtual power plants to compete directly with large-scale generators in the energy market, scheduled to begin in 2027.