Labor’s Sunday solar schools announcement may not be the last renewables pledge it makes to win the hearts and minds of the NSW electorate. It takes into account the voice of climate-striking students, and every disaffected-teenage contribution to conversations around the dinner table.

Analysis released today by independent energy and consulting firm, Rystad Energy shows an incredible reserve of energy storage has been added to Australia’s ongoing boom in solar and wind projects during the first two months of 2019 — confidence, perhaps, that an energy-transition policy will finally triumph at the Federal polls!

In 2021, the settlement period for the supply of energy into the NEM will decrease from 30 minutes to five minutes, creating market conditions for batteries to start being deployed in the solar utility market. One of the world’s most respected inverter manufacturers is currently shipping central inverters that enable anytime integration of battery storage. Retrofits for already installed systems are on the next boat.

Australia’s two upcoming elections — in NSW this month and Federally in May — have brought to light the extreme contrasts that exist in Australian politics around the value of renewable energy, the indispensibility of coal to Australia’s economy and how the country might alleviate the high energy prices consumers are dealing with. Here are two recently presented views from each end of the political spectrum.

As the business case grows for corporates to take out power purchase agreements for renewable energy, and Australia’s renewable-projects pipeline expands, the country’s first ever marketplace has opened for buyers and developers to form perfect power couples.

Energy is in the news as elections in NSW and at a Federal level edge closer. Today six Queensland National MPs called for the return of Angus Taylor’s Big Stick policy to scare down energy prices, three NSW independents wrote to the state’s Premier and Opposition leader demanding action on climate change, and a curious proposal for a new coal-fired power plant in the Hunter Valley emerged from Hong Kong.

Summer is notionally over and analysts at Rystad Energy have coolly assessed the coming year into 2020; in Sydney the Rystad team convened an experienced panel of market participants to give their take on what solar developers, EPCs, investors, equipment suppliers and skill seekers can expect in months to come.

At the Commercial and Large Scale Solar Conference, Epho, an EPC and operations-and-maintenance provider in the C&I space, announced it has developed a model for industrial rooftops to be blanketed in solar PV for the benefit of tenants, landlords and the grid — it involves operating both behind and in front of the meter.

Professor Thomas Maschmeyer and his team of researchers at Sydney Uni spin-off Gelion Technologies have developed a scalable, inexpensive zinc-bromine battery, they say is safe for home storage, remotely serviceable for far-flung solar installations, and cool under pressure.

As climate change and energy security penetrate NSW political parties as potent issues in the upcoming State election, NSW Labor has upped the ante in the policy contest by setting a renewable energy target that could see 50% of the state’s electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030.