Last November, the NSW government announced its Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap which is expected to attract up to $32 billion in private investment for renewable energy infrastructure by 2030. The Roadmap aims to unlock 12GW of new renewable energy capacity from selected Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) with an additional 2GW in storage. Last month, the state government progressed its plans as it opened consultations on “specific urgent and mechanical policy details” on regulations needed to implement the Roadmap.

Australian governments are busy designing the nation’s transition to a clean energy future. Unfortunately, in a misguided effort to ensure electricity supplies remain affordable and reliable, governments are considering a move that would effectively pay Australia’s old, polluting coal-fired power stations to stay open longer.

The shift from 30-minute settlement to 5-minute settlement (5MS) is fast approaching – 162 days away but who’s counting.

Solar power is now the cheapest source of electricity in history, according to a 2020 report by the International Energy Agency. But there’s something holding this clean energy powerhouse back: space.

Annual battery storage installations will exceed 10 GW/28 GWh in 2021, following a particularly strong year in 2020, despite the challenges created by the global pandemic, writes IHS Markit analyst Mike Longson. Combined solar and storage will be a core focus for new deployment in 2021, as the front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter energy storage markets are both expected to grow significantly in the months ahead.

The $2 trillion package includes a proposed 10-year extension of the ITC and PTC and calls for further incentives to add transmission capacity. Most solar advocates liked it, but one nonprofit panned it as being too industry-friendly.

Queensland’s government will install five community batteries at regional substations across the state in a bid to time-shift its abundant solar resources.

Canadian Solar is pivoting towards energy storage and is preparing to IPO its manufacturing and Chinese solar project activity in China, under the CSI Solar operation, by July.

“Unprecedented” was a term widely used in 2020, as the world grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic. The same word can be similarly applied to the plans and investments in production capacity announced by Chinese PV manufacturers right across the supply chain. But what shape are these expansions taking and what is driving this renewed confidence? Vincent Shaw reports from Shanghai.

BHP has started the year by signing a PPA that will halve emissions at its Nickel West Kwinana refinery and double its green cred as a supplier to environmentally conscious lithium-ion battery manufacturers.

Graphite’s pivotal role in electric-vehicle battery technology is coming under increasing scrutiny. Graphite is almost exclusively produced in China, and while the processing of the mineral poses serious environmental issues, the alternatives appear costly. Ian Morse looks at what’s next for critical graphite supplies.

This year will be a key period in the development of China’s solar PV market. It is the first year of the 14th five-year plan, the first calendar year after President Xi Jinping announced the 2030-60 carbon emissions commitment, and the first year for utility and commercial unsubsidised projects. IHS Markit expects the solar industry in China to reach another milestone with more than 60 GW of installations this year, advancing the ground for the energy transition and the displacement of traditional energy sources to fullfill the goal of a net carbon future over the next four decades to come.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has outlined his plan for Australia to “emerge as a renewable energy superpower,” underwritten by a $100 million initiative to fund apprenticeships in new energy jobs including solar, large-scale renewable projects, green hydrogen and renewable manufacturing.

Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels will not be able to move forward fast enough to replace fossil fuels and tackle climate change, according to a German-Swiss research team that claims direct electrification alternatives are cheaper and easier to implement. The scientists cite too-high prices, short-term scarcity and long-term uncertainty, as the main reasons for their skepticism, which has caused a stir in academic circles.

With South Africa holding 63,000 of the world’s estimated 69,000 metric tons of platinum reserves – according to the Statista.com website – and Russia and Zimbabwe a further 5,100 between them, the European Commission has cited the metal as an example of a potential supply chain bottleneck that could handicap its grand plans for renewables-powered hydrogen production.

It’s claimed the decentralised desalination system can deliver a levelised cost for desalinated water of US$0.7-4.3/m3, depending on PV costs and electricity prices. It was built with several concentrated photovoltaic/thermal (CPV-T) collectors, a hot water tank, a V-MEMD module, a seawater feed tank, and a distillate tank.

New South Wales is leading the rooftop solar PV race with homeowners in the state installing more than 100,000 systems in 2020 according to the CSIRO following a detailed analysis of data released by the Clean Energy Regulator.

Solar Citizens has warned the Australian Energy Market Commission’s controversial proposal to make solar PV owners pay to export their surplus production to the grid could send the National Electricity Market into a ‘death spiral’.

Australian renewable energy developer Vast Solar is calling for expressions of interest from contractors as it pushes ahead with plans to develop a $600 million hybrid solar thermal project in far western Queensland.

Record investment in solar and wind farms across the National Electricity Market has helped to quell concerns that Victoria and South Australia will face increased risk of blackouts later this decade following the impending closure of the Yallourn coal-fired power plant.

The famous electric car manufacturer is reportedly shifting to cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for its utility-scale battery.

Tindo Solar, Australia’s only solar panel manufacturer, has teamed up with a group of engineering students from the Australian National University to help them construct a solar race car.

Researchers in the United Kingdom have built a 14%-efficient organic PV device that can be used in high-speed optical wireless communication systems. The cell consists of a 4×2.5mm photoactive layer fabricated with a bulk heterojunction of a polymer donor and fullerene and non-fullerene acceptors.

A new South Australian big battery will show the value of deploying diverse storage technologies in the NEM. Matt Harper calls pv magazine Australia from Canada, to talk tech.

Scientists in China have analysed the radiative cooling techniques used in combination with solar energy systems such as PV arrays, solar thermal collectors, and concentrated PV installations. They identified five major system typologies based on functionality and working time.

There has been a flurry of activity within the PV cell manufacturer landscape over the past 12 to 18 months, and it’s largely been in one direction: bigger. But as large-format modules arrive on the market, questions are being raised as to how long the trend can continue and when bigger becomes, quite simply, too big.

Australia’s only solar module manufacturer Tindo Solar has unveiled a new generation 400 W module for the domestic and export markets as the Adelaide-based company rides a wave of success that has delivered a 40% increase in retail orders and 70% rise in wholesale orders in the past 12 months.

The 1 GWh first phase of a planned 8 GWh lithium battery factory in Thailand is likely to be up and running during 2023.

Scientists in China took a closer look at the role of defects in limiting the performance of perovskite solar cells, demonstrating a screening effect that could be tuned to make material defects “invisible” to charge carriers, greatly improving cell performance. Using this approach they demonstrate a 22% efficient inverted perovskite solar cell, and theorise several new pathways to even higher performance.

New cell and module technologies are boosting power outputs, but they often have implications for quality. A focus purely on cell cracking illustrates just this point, with some approaches proving beneficial, and others potentially problematic – cue Tristan Erion-Lorico from PV Evolution Labs (PVEL).

An expected drop-off in the performance of its Australian battery energy storage assets has sparked a $24 million (€15.6 million) downturn in consolidated revenue for French renewables developer Neoen.

Government-owned water utility, SA Water, has completed its extensive solar installation project, which involved installing more than 350,000 PV panels across 33 water treatment plants and pump stations across metropolitan and regional areas of South Australia.

While suburban Australian rooftops have become coated in solar panels, the roofs of our commercial and industrial buildings have remained conspicuously bare. Our shopping centres, however, seem to be slowly be moving in the direction ordinary Australian’s have paved, with Australia’s largest privately-owned shopping centre yesterday announcing plans for a sizeable microgrid. Likewise, Vicinity, one of the country’s largest shopping centre managers, has managed to increase its sustainability rating largely through its extensive solar program.

RedEarth Energy Storage has partnered with Rexel Australia to expand its nationwide distribution network as the demand for Australian-made energy storage systems grows despite the economic downturn.

Edge Centres’ model for grid-independent data distribution at the edge of connectivity is set to rock regional Australia with its low-cost reliability, and has been welcomed by solar operators in Japan.