Energy Storage

The scope of Zen Energy’s fledgling collaboration with Taiwan’s HD Renewable Energy has expanded with the two parties launching a joint venture that is targeting the development of 400 MW of solar and 1 GW of energy storage capacity in Australia.

Big BESS is booming in Australia, with almost 5 GW of projects under construction last year, according Rystad Energy. While encouraging, the analyst reports that the volume remains insufficient to overcome growing rates of renewable curtailment. “We have around 3 GW operational at the moment, but about half of that is still in commissioning. So you still only have 1.5 GW on the market where the average load is 23 GW,” Rystad Energy’s David Dixon said.

Australian Vanadium Limited’s plan to establish a major vanadium mine in Western Australia’s mid-west have firmed up with its proposal receiving the tick of approval from the state’s Environmental Protection Authority.

Renewable energy developer Acen Australia is seeking federal government approval for a 100 MW solar facility and an 180 MW battery energy storage system to be built near Cooma in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains region.

The Australian Energy Market Commission has released a final determination to allow virtual power plants to compete directly with large-scale generators in the energy market, scheduled to begin in 2027.

Community submissions for a proposed utility-scale agrivoltaic solar farm on Aotearoa New Zealand’s south island, which would have the capacity to power 70,000 homes annually, has returned 75% against the development.

Researchers from four Australian universities have released a new paper questioning why solar microgrids are not ‘the norm’ in remote Central Australia, while energy insecurity prevails in very remote Aboriginal households.

As flow battery technology comes of age, Australia’s capacity to mine the critical minerals required, and manufacture flow batteries has a promising future on the back of embracing automation and supported by government funding.

In five key trends, pv magazine looks back over a year that saw PV module prices fall lower than many thought possible, while demand was restrained by grid congestion, among other challenges. Energy storage has had a strong year and geopolitics is seeing solar and battery manufacturing enter new regions as competition drives technical innovation.

An alliance of clean energy companies are establishing off-grid solar arrays and battery storage units in remote communities to enable local businesses to source reliable renewable energy by subscription.