Australia is setting out to become a global hydrogen superpower – but the standards we’re applying to classify ‘green’ renewable hydrogen are falling well behind our global peers and the expectations of future customers. The heart of the problem is “we’ve separated the characteristics of energy from the energy itself,” Steve Hoy, founder and CEO of power tracing technology company Enosi, tells pv magazine Australia.

South Australia’s 150 MW / 193.5 Hornsdale Power Reserve, more commonly known as the Tesla Big Battery, will now provide inertia services to Australia’s National Electricity Market after securing approval from AEMO. Neoen says it is the first big battery in the world to deliver the service at such a scale.

Melbourne’s Monash University will conduct a $1.18 million study into alternative market designs which better support energy storage technologies and drive clearer investment signals.

Energy efficient homes, like those with solar panels, fetch, on average, a premium of over 17% in Australia – though that figure grows to 28.9% in Queensland and 24% in Victoria, according to a report from real estate company Domain.

Rooftop solar installations may now be conducted by multiple installers, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) announced today. The rule change will afford companies more flexibility as CER continues tightening its surveillance of the rooftop industry.

The Greens party says it will now begin “formal negotiations” with the Labor government on its climate bill, raising concerns about what it deems an inadequate 43% emissions reduction target and allowance for new coal and gas projects.

Concerns Australia’s skills shortage will impact the new federal government’s hallmark $20 billion Rewiring the Nation program, as well as the clean energy transition more generally, have been raised at the Australian Clean Energy Summit in Sydney.

Sydney is close to having its first ‘renewable’ gas – converted from wastewater’s raw biogas into biomethane. The gas is to be produced at the Malabar Wastewater Resource Recovery Plant, with the trial the result of partnerships between ARENA, the NSW government, Sydney Water and Jemena.

Octopus Investments Australia, a subsidiary of the major global Octopus Group, today launched two renewable energy investment vehicles totalling $10 billion. The Octopus funds’ first joint acquisition is Australia’s largest operational solar farm, the 333 MW Darlington Point Solar Farm in New South Wales.

Tesla chair Robyn Denholm expects the company to double its EV sales in Australia by the year’s end, hoping to see its flagship product catch up to its Powerwall sales. Denholm also said Australia needs to expand its lithium refining and processing capacity at “sprinting pace” to properly capture the global battery opportunity.