The government’s Climate Solutions Fund offers little hope for financial-industry backers of a Paris aligned economic recovery writes Tim Buckley, Director of Energy Finance Studies with IEEFA Australasia

While covid-19 will cause a lot of short-term pain, it presents us with a unique opportunity to accelerate the clean energy transition.

A major new report finds there is a pathway to zero emissions for every major economic sector in Australia. Over 18 months in the making, Decarbonisation Futures offers fresh ideas for how Australia can embrace the zero-emissions future that is visible on the other side of the pandemic, writes Amandine Denis-Ryan of ClimateWorks Australia.

Over the past few months, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented global economic and social crisis. The pandemic has significantly affected all aspects of life, including the energy sector.

Coal has underpinned power generation for more than a century as a cheap, reliable and well understood technology, writes IHS Markit analyst George Hilton. Decommissioning of coal generation, in light of global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, will radically change the energy landscape and potentially leave a substantial gap to be filled by energy storage technologies.

Solar wholesaler BayWa r.e. is partnering with industry trainer Global Sustainable Energy Solutions (GSES) on training provision seeking to ameliorate a noticeable lack of quality control within the rapidly growing solar industry.

In the face of renewed political polarisation on the both Federal energy policy and Australia’s economic recovery from the impact of Covid-19, Warringah MP Zali Steggall has called for a Roundtable in which both public and private sector voices of the nation can better vet potential projects.

The Greens released their plan for Australia’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis this week. The plan looks to invest heavily in renewable infrastructure, a cunningly rational ploy to solve a few crises at once.

The Palaszczuk Government is providing funding to accelerate a $1.5 billion transmission link stretching from Townsville to Mount Isa in North Queensland in a bid to stimulate large-scale solar and wind investment and underpin the creation of local battery industry.

Italian-headquartered module manufacturer FuturaSun has completed accrediting its module range with the Clean Energy Council.

Sunday will herald the largest PV procurement exercise ever held in Malaysia. Half the available capacity will be directed to 10-30 MW facilities with the balance reserved for plants with capacities of up to 50 MW.

The coal era is officially over in the United States. Not since 1885, when coal replaced wood, have renewables taken the lead.

The Chinese-Canadian solar manufacturer reported a 41% year-over-year increase in total module shipments to 2.2 GW in the first quarter. Revenue grew by 70% to $826 million, while net profit improved significantly from $17.2 million to $110.6 million.

In a major reform of the energy rules, distribution businesses across Australia will be allowed to service remote areas with stand-alone power systems and avoid costly network upgrades.

The German-headquartered project developer has signed a deal with Pacific Energy’s subsidiary Contract Power to build a hybrid renewable energy project that will power the town of Esperance.

In 2019, renewables continued to undermine the dominance of coal on the Australian grid and surged on the back of a massive 46% year-on-year jump in solar power, according to the latest data from the federal Energy Department.

A research project in the Netherlands is seeking to assess the impact of large scale PV projects on soil quality and biodiversity. Principal scientist Wim Sinke, of Dutch research center TNO, says well-designed and operated and maintained solar parks could prove to have better outcomes than monoculture farming.

Work on the long-awaited 280-megawatt Cultana Solar Farm in South Australia could begin as early as July.

The Sun Cable megaproject is moving from strength to strength with last week’s announcement of the awarding of its cable route survey contract to Guardian Geomatics Pty. Ltd.

The Spanish EPC contractor has signed its fourth contract in Australia to build the 39 MW PV array 40 kilometers north-west of Orange.

Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel has claimed Australia will remain dependent on gas for up to another 30 years as it seeks to transition to a renewables-dominated grid.

Following hot on the heels of Sun Cable’s awarding of its unprecedented cable route survey contract to Guardian Geomatics Pty. Ltd., the company has also announced planning approval for a Darwin megabattery to form an integral part of its Australia-ASEAN Power Link.

Western Australia’s Renewable Hydrogen Strategy is beginning to make moves with the backing of Hazer Group and the Water Corporation to produce hydrogen from biogas, an Australian-first with a technology developed in Australia.

A global consortium of technology providers, transport and infrastructure experts has joined forces to show the Australian public the feasibility and utility of hydrogen fuel cells to cleanly power public transport.

Epho Commercial Solar has developed a proof point for urban solar power stations that can flexibly deliver clean energy behind the meter to commercial customers and replace fossil fuels at the heart of the NEM.

The panel is part of the company’s new Tiger Pro series, which includes two 530 W modules and a 430 W product for distributed-generation applications. It will begin production of the series in the fourth quarter, although it will start accepting first orders immediately.

The solar manufacturer with manufacturing in Singapore has filed a claim against its Korean competitor relating to REC’s split-cell and junction box technology.

The German manufacturer secured around 60% of the turnover expected this year in the first three months alone but still posted a net loss. Much of the company’s demand in the period was related to pre-Covid-19 activity in the U.S. and European solar markets.

Chinese manufacturer JA Solar has announced a new 525 W+ panel and said the product will be available from the second half. Domestic rival Risen has shipped the first batch of its high-powered modules and intends to stick to pre-Covid-19 plans to ramp up production.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has found that the country already has the technical capability to safely operate a system where three-quarters of electricity comes from wind and solar. However, to do so it needs to get regulations right.

MIT scientists have suggested used electric vehicle batteries could offer a more viable business case than purpose-built systems for the storage of grid scale solar power in California. Such ‘second life’ EV batteries, may cost only 60% of their original purchase price to deploy and can be effectively aggregated for industrial scale storage even if they have declined to 80% of their original capacity.

The controversial Snowy 2.0 project has mounted a major hurdle after the New South Wales government this week announced approval for its main works.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder, in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia (WA), is set to receive the region’s first community battery. The WA Government-owned utility Western Power is looking to smooth out peak load periods by integrating the Tesla battery into the network.

The unique solar, wind, and battery project has been completed at Gold Fields’ Agnew Gold Mine, marking Australia’s largest hybrid microgrid of its kind.

Risen Energy Australia has been confirmed as a solar panel partner on the Resilient Energy Collective bushfire relief campaign, which aims to install stand-alone solar and Tesla battery systems at up to 100 sites around Australia.