Australian giant AGL Energy will soon own the world’s largest ‘grid forming’ battery, with construction on its 250 MW/250 MWh big battery to begin later this year at Torrens Island, just north of Adelaide in South Australia. The battery will be delivered by Finnish technology company Wärtsilä with inverters supplied by German company SMA Solar Technology.

Melbourne-based company carbontrack has secured $877,000 in funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its energy management technology. The funding comes in part from industry and in part from the federal government.

Patrick Matweew, CEO of Australian startup Luceo Energy, is fully aware grid digitalisation stirs fervour in the hearts of few. It is, nonetheless, perhaps the single most important step in realising our clean energy future. “It’s not spoken about enough because it sits in that little niche. There might be other things that are a little bit more sexy, but this is really where the fundamentals get put in place to enable [everything else],” he told pv magazine Australia. 


Mildura Rural City Council will install a solar system with up to 99 kW of capacity at its Mildura South Regional Sporting Precinct, which is currently under construction. A spokesperson for Mildura Council told pv magazine Australia 50% of the system’s savings will be provided to a local group to deliver its ongoing sustainability programs for the community.

The Victorian government has commissioned the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to seek tenders for six new grid upgrade projects to prepare for the influx of clean energy associated with the state’s western Renewable Energy Zones (REZs).

South Korean company LG Energy Solution has partnered with Australian fintech financier Humm Group and renewable energy retailer Diamond Energy to provide customers with Virtual Power Plant platform. Virtual power plants (VPPs) are gaining momentum in Australia as a way to decrease buyback time on home batteries and potentially add stabilisation services to the grid.

It’s a breakthrough so staggeringly simple the patent office needed convincing it counted as an invention. In what Professor Thomas Nann jokingly told pv magazine Australia basically equates to adding dishwashing liquid and oil to water, he and two of his former PhD students have unlocked the potential of water-based electrolytes for batteries, promising a solution that is cheaper, easier to manufacture and non-toxic. The startup plans to initially use the formula in supercapacitors before exploring it in conjunction with redox flow batteries.


The Queensland government has approved a new “state-of-the-art” renewable energy skills centre in Brisbane, which will provide training to prospective and current electrical workers to enter clean energy industries.

Solar panels the size of five cent pieces will be used to locate koalas and protect them from incoming bushfires as well as to care for the threatened species as their habitat regenerates.

The federal government has allocated $25.6 million to support 20 microgrid feasibility studies, including in communities affected by the Black Summer bushfires, which left regions without power for weeks.