microgrid

The South Australian government says it is looking to implement a series of reforms to improve the reliability, affordability and security of the state’s energy market. According to its latest state budget, released on Tuesday, it has allocated $180 million to execute the program.

Following a grant from the Victorian government, Origin Energy is gearing up to connect solar and battery systems of up to 650 residential and commercial properties across the state, in what will be its first virtual power plant and the largest one in Victoria to date.

A new report from Commonwealth Bank shows that 76% of Australian farmers would like to invest in solar with battery storage, and more than nine in ten farmers surveyed said they had some level of interest in energy efficiency investment.

As part of its state-wide microgrid funding promise, the Labor Government has allocated a total of $980,000 for the Ovida Community Energy Hub project, which will install shared solar PV and battery systems in three multi-tenanted buildings in Melbourne.

Yolk Property Group has partnered with Power Ledger to implement blockchain technology at their Evermore development – powered by solar PV and battery storage technology – allowing residents of the 24 apartments to buy and sell solar power amongst themselves, thus ensuring considerable saving on residents’ electricity bills.

Brisbane-based redox-flow supplier Redflow has begun shipping batteries from its new Thai manufacturing facility to Fiji, under a $1.6 million telecommunications supply deal. The batteries will be deployed by New Zealand’s Hitech Solutions to power Fiji’s new digital television network over the next six months.

Canadian-owned gas network operator ATCO is developing a micro grid at its Jandakot facility, which will use solar power to produce hydrogen fuel. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has committed $1.5 million to the project.

Farms affected by power outages in the McKinlay Shire, north-western Queensland, can now go off grid – through a new solar+storage containerised solution from Germany’s Intech.

A 7.3 MW solar array and 2 MW/1 MWh battery will be added to the Granny Smith gold mine in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region. The system will be provided by Aggreko and Younicos, under a ‘microgrid-as-a-service’ business model.

German battery manufacturer, Tesvolt and EPC Unlimited Energy won the Smarter E award last week, for their innovative off-grid solar plus storage project in WA’s Southwest. The project demonstrates how solar can provide a reliable energy supply without back up from the grid, and why it is set to spread around the world even faster than many predict.