Western Australia’s regional utility Horizon Power has installed a battery system in Exmouth on the state’s northern coast, unlocking 2 MW of solar hosting capacity. The installation is one of nine batteries being installed by the utility across the state and is arguably a more effective rendition of a “community battery.”

New South Wales network Transgrid has announced it will trial the first dual-cab electric ute released in Australia.

If re-elected in March, the New South Wales Liberal and National coalition say they will fast track the rollout of public and private electric vehicle (EV) chargers by reforming strata and planning laws, and installing public facilities at transport hubs.

US aluminium giant Alcoa will go ahead with trialling a steam recycling technology aimed at reducing emissions at its West Australian Wagerup facility, after an ARENA-backed study found the technology was not only feasible but cheaper.

A surge of community battery trials in Australia is seeking to make better use of the country’s vast distributed solar resource. But the results so far have battered expectations. pv magazine Australia’s Natalie Filatoff and Bella Peacock explore the motivations, challenges, and outlook for sharing and monetising solar rooftop riches.

Singapore-based vanadium redox flow battery maker VFlowTech has raised $14.4 million (USD 10 million) as part of a Series A funding round. It will use the capital to set up a 200 MWh vanadium flow battery factory for the production of its 250 kWh product.

The prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering has this year been awarded to the University of New South Wales’ Professor Martin Green, Dr Aihua Wang and Dr Jianhua Zhao, as well as the Australian National University’s Professor Andrew Blakers, for their research work and development of PERC solar technology.

Large-scale wind and solar farm investment commitments grew nearly 50% in 2022, according to new data published by the Clean Energy Regulator.

A research team at the Australian National University have claimed an efficiency of 30.3% for a tandem solar cell made by mechanically stacking a perovskite cell and a silicon cell. The achievement meets the first of three 2030 “stretch goals” set by the Australian government.

Solar and storage analyst Sunwiz is predicting an inversion of many of the trends that dominated the industry in 2022. While rooftop solar has bounced back after a disappointing year, Sunwiz founder Warwick Johnston tells pv magazine Australia, the utility segment’s position looks dire.