After agreeing to provide debt finance to two Wirsol projects with a combined capacity of 200 MW, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has achieved the milestone of having funded 1 GW of large scale solar projects. The two loans to Wirsol allow construction of the projects to get underway before PPAs have been signed.

Independent oil and gas producer Woodside will deploy a battery and microgrid solution on one of its offshore gas platforms. The system is planned to reduce the facility’s gas consumption for electricity supply and its O&M costs.

A major milestone was surpassed in the Australian PV market last month, indicating that the rooftop solar sector is in robust health. However, not tracked in the figures underlying the record are large commercial rooftops and distributed battery storage, and reports are that here too strong growth is being achieved.

The not-for-profit Alternative Technology Association (ATA) has launched a free service through which homeowners looking to install a solar+storage system can get information on how to best size their system.

Enphase has entered the Indian PV market, supplying 2,858 of its microinverters to a 1 MW commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop project nearby to the city of Bangalore. The rooftop project sprawls over six roofs of an agriculture product processing facility.

What is being touted as Australia’s largest merchant PV power plant has signed grid connection and electricity transfer agreements with WA’s state-owned grid operator Western Power. Construction on the two-phase 128 MW(dc) project, to be located around 160km east of Perth, is set to get underway in early 2018.

Sydney-based commercial rooftop solar specialists Todae Solar opened one of Australia’s largest rooftop PV array at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga campus this week. The multi-rooftop system comes in at 1.77 MW and will provide “an immediate financial benefit” to CSU.

German renewables developer Wirsol claims to be the PV power plant market leader in Australia, achieving around 20% market share of projects currently under construction. It entered the market less than twelve months ago.

SMA is set to supply its central inverters and power plant controllers to more than 20 PV power plant projects in Australia. Today the inverter giant revealed that it has signed contracts to supply its Medium Voltage Power Station (MVPS) and the SMA Power Plant Controller to around 1.2 GW in projects.

Former Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) CEO Oliver Yates has joined the board of the Australian Solar and Energy Storage Council.