Coal fleets represent huge financial risk to shareholders and investors write Tim Buckley IEEFA’S Director of Energy Finance Studies, Kate Finlayson the organisation’s Senior Communications Strategist.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a device they say could “turbocharge” a single-junction silicon PV cell, pushing the technology beyond its theoretical limit to efficiencies of 35% and higher.

Solar Juice has signed an agreement to distribute REC Group modules in Australia – in particular to target commercial and industrial (C&I) customers. The announcement last week, made no note of the patent lawsuit that Hanwha Q Cells has brought against REC Group in Australia, which includes two of its distributors.

In the third of a series of four blogs, solar pioneer Philip Wolfe lists the world’s largest solar power plants. In these articles, a ‘solar plant’ is defined as an individual generating station.

In an ASX announcement today, Queensland-based independent power producer ReNu Energyannounced that it has entered into a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group (SCA Property Group) for a further four solar PV and embedded network projects at shopping centres in Queensland and Victoria.

WA’s publicly owned grid operator will equip some of its staff with the skills required to install and maintain standalone power systems on the South West Interconnected Network (SWIN). The move reflects the move away from traditional poles-and-wires electricity supply, particularly to regional parts of the state’s Southwest. 

With a pronounced focus on safety and installer certification in the second round of Victoria’s landmark Solar Homes subsidy program, the Smart Energy Council (SEC) has renewed calls for its ‘whole of industry’ code to be incorporated into the program. SEC CEO John Grimes says that he broadly supports the focus on safety as “setting a high bar.” 

The Victorian Government has published its targets and caps for the 2019/20 round of the Solar Homes program. 40,0000 privately owned homes are set to receive government grants under the program, with an additional 2,000 systems on rental properties. 1,000 grants for retrofitted residential storage are also set to be subsidised in the latest round, in targeted areas. 

The ABC current affairs show, 7.30, aired a segment on the safety standards in the Australian solar industry on Monday May 27. The program reported on the potentially tens of thousands of badly installed and unsafe solar systems on rooftops.

Melbourne-based startup Allume Energy has been selected by Mirvac to provide solar sharing technology to publicly listed property developer Mirvac. The approach, Mirvac claims allows its commercial and residential apartment tenants to consume solar installed on multi-tenant buildings.