microgrid

Western Australia has officially extended the reach of its new darling: stand-alone power systems, or SAPS. In a state first, Government-owned network services provider Western Power has deployed units at two Perth Hills properties following bushfires earlier this month.

With a state election looming and a Liberal Opposition eager to embrace renewables, Western Australia’s McGowan government has announced a $259 million renewables-focussed package in a bid to retain power and primacy in the progressive space.

The Ranger Uranium Mine, completely enclosed within the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, ceased production in January 2021 after years of financial losses. Now, as part of a multi-million dollar rejuvenation of the Park, a solar and battery storage hybrid project is set for development at the town of Jabiru, a project which will help the town replenish itself as a tourist hub for one of Australia’s greatest treasures.

New South Wales network operator Ausgrid yesterday launched its first community battery in Beacon Hill, north of Sydney. It is one of three community batteries being installed across Sydney allowing solar customers to store their extra energy at no additional cost.

Of the myriad tensions upon the energy transition to renewables it is perhaps the ability of solar and energy storage to be distributed among the people that has threatened the powers that be most overtly. And so, in NSW’s northwest where the federal government has pushed through Santos’s Narrabri coal seam gas project, perhaps it is community green energy non-profit Geni.Energy that is best able to show just how unnecessary such a project is.

The Hills International College and Golf Academy in Jimboomba, Queensland (QLD), which boasts former World Number 1 Jason Day as an alumnus, is partnering with Sydney-based renewable energy outfit Energy Estate to develop the Jimboomba Renewable Hydrogen Plant. 

Peel Renewable Energy is about to energise its 1.2 MW solar farm, which forms the heart of a fresh, phased microgrid approach to industrial-estate development. That is, grid infrastructure remains small, while the renewably powered microgrid grows to meet the needs of incoming businesses.

Carnegie Clean Energy’s Garden Island Microgid, which supplies energy to the HMAS Stirling Navy Base, has successfully recommenced operations after a brief disconnection period to allow for Navy upgrades to its electricity system.

The use of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells as backup power generation in solar microgrids could drive down costs and improve efficiency, according to an international group of researchers. They have proposed a new energy management system that could be ideal for hybrid solar-hydrogen microgrids in remote locations.

Solar-based microgrids are transforming island aspirations for prosperity, sustainability and the returning tourist trade.