The most striking feature of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s long-term emissions reduction plan outlined on Tuesday is not the long-telegraphed commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, or the promise of a $20 billion clean energy program (around 0.2% of national income annually).

One of Australia’s most remote settlements will soon be powered by renewable energy with Western Australia utility Horizon Power announcing construction is well progressed on a 700 kWac solar farm and a 1.78 MWh battery energy storage system being installed in Kalumburu.

The ability of grid-scale batteries to provide fast frequency response and synthetic inertia services to the National Energy Market will be put to the test with infrastructure service provider Lumea confirming commissioning of the 50 MW/75 MWh Wallgrove Grid Battery in Western Sydney has commenced.

The Tasmanian government is taking legal action against the owners of the Basslink Interconnector, seeking to recover more than $70 million owed because of a lengthy outage six years ago.

Queensland government-owned utility Ergon Energy has opened the doors to a new $6 million “world-class” research and development hub designed to accelerate the integration of renewable energy technology including microgrids and standalone power systems into the state’s electricity network.

The continued rollout of rooftop solar PV and large-scale wind and solar farms continues to reshape Australia’s electricity market with new data released by the Australian Energy Market Operator revealing that the penetration of renewable energy continues to drive new records in the National Electricity Market.

South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution has launched a new inverter in the Australian market, adding a 5 kW hybrid inverter to its Residential Energy Storage Unit (RESU) Home battery energy storage range.

With the transformation of Australia’s power system accelerating, the Australian Energy Market Commission has unveiled a raft of reforms to improve system strength in the national grid, predicting the changes will smooth the way for new energy resources including large-solar PV and batteries to connect to the grid.

Australian clean energy investment firm Providence Asset Group will roll out hydrogen-lithium battery technology at its solar farms after partnering with the Commonwealth Bank to fund a portfolio of 10 community-based solar plants in regional Victoria as part of the group’s larger ambitions to develop up to 40 ~5 MW solar farms across the eastern states.

Sydney-based prefabricated solar array manufacturer 5B has taken the wraps off a new generation of its re-deployable modular Maverick solar technology which it says is not only quicker and easier to install than the previous model but 30% more powerful.