Investment in large-scale solar appears to be faltering in Australia. The technology with the lowest cost, with no emissions and the fastest time to delivery, has often found itself dangling at the oversubscribed end of a limp transmission line, with additional, expensive requirements to connect, or earnings-slashing curtailments when operational. Investors have found no reassurance in the federal government’s winking at coal, courting of gas, and undermining of agencies established to support innovation and investment in renewables. In short, the Australian prime minister is showing a complete lack of urgency to act on climate change. Enter the Renewable Energy Zone.

In less than a year from today, Australia will be producing its own renewable-energy-storing lithium-ion batteries in the Hunter Region. A new $28 million Energy Renaissance facility will embed itself in the learning, hard-working, adaptable culture around the port of Newcastle, manufacturing exports that are expected to contribute some $3 billion to Australia’s GDP and advance the country’s energy transition.

Sustainable intentions come together in the signing of a green loan to fund ongoing development of FRV’s Sebastopol Solar Farm, which lender ING says contributes towards its “ambition to align our lending portfolio with the Paris Agreement goals”.

One of the few benefits of COVID-19 is the ability to virtually attend conferences that may previously have been a plane ticket too far. Tomorrow’s South Australian Renewable Energy Conference is a window of opportunity …

Australia needs more transmission and network capacity to efficiently use its vast, distributed renewable-energy resources, and to enable transition to a low-cost, zero-carbon electricity supply. In the Australian Opposition’s Budget in Reply it aims to make Australia’s inherent wealth work better for the nation, and puts transmission infrastructure upgrade at the centre of the country’s recovery from Covid-19.

As some parts of Australia’s distribution networks threaten to blackout under the flow of rooftop solar exports, ARENA announces funding for a trial that will enable flexible exports in line with what the networks can bear. Smart software is the answer.

The Western Australian Government is expanding its battery of solar-smoothing energy storage systems, with a 100 MW BESS proposed to move into the site of the old fossil-fueled Kwinana power station 30 km south of Perth.

Reducing the cost and increasing the output of the 109 GW of solar PV forecast to be installed in Australia by the year 2050 is just part of the aim of funding announced by ARENA on Friday.

Australia’s utility-scale solar is not untouchable. In a major win for the country’s clean-energy sector, UPC\AC Renewables yesterday announced the appointment of an EPC for the first phase of its 720 MW New England Solar Farm and colocated potential 400 MW battery energy storage system.

How to get the gigawatts of distributed solar generation in the WA’s South West Interconnected System to play nicely with the network: Western Power has gathered 100 MW of resource to test its coordinated ability to stabilise the system on low demand days.