Smart technology that controls energy flow on power grids could soon be the norm in the Northern Territory with a trial launched in the outback town of Alice Springs that will test the economic and energy efficiency of a rooftop solar-driven virtual power plant.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis is calling for an independent inquiry into Australia’s electricity networks and their regulators claiming Australians have been overcharged $10 billion (USD 6.5 billion) in the past eight years by distribution and transmission network service businesses making “supernormal” profits from consumers forced to use their poles and wires.

Solar PV module manufacturer REC Group’s “most innovative panel to date” will make its Australian debut at the All-Energy Australia exhibition and conference in Melbourne later this month.

The operators of an energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining centre in the South Australian industrial city of Whyalla believe it offers a solution to curtailment issues that haunt many developers of solar PV projects in the National Electricity Market.

With Australia’s appetite for solar energy fuelling a projected surge in end-of-life solar panels, the Victorian government has launched a $10 million program to help deal with the more than 180,000 tonnes of PV panels expected to enter the state’s waste stream by 2035.

Renewables developer Bright Energy Investments has reported positive signs after launching a sheep grazing trial to replace mechanical methods of maintaining vegetation growth at the 40 MW Greenough River Solar Farm in Western Australia’s mid-west.

A solar PV and battery energy storage project planned for the New South Wales Central West tablelands has achieved a major milestone with project developer ACEN Corporation approving $800 million for the construction of the 400 MW Stubbo Solar Farm.

AGL Energy – Australia’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases – announced this week it will shut the Loy Yang A power station in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley in 2035, a decade earlier than planned.

Australia’s first zinc-bromide battery production line has commenced operations with Gelion Technologies launching a manufacturing facility in Western Sydney capable of producing 2 MWh of batteries annually.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures has unveiled plans to deliver its first standalone battery energy storage system in Australia, announcing it will build a 100 MW/200 MWh big battery in Victoria’s southwest after securing $7 million in funding from the state government.