Installations

Australian commercial solar outfit CleanPeak Energy will deliver at least four new solar farms in regional New South Wales after striking a green energy deal with the state government that will ensure the long-term carbon neutrality of Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct.

A “major influx” of new renewable generation and storage capacity is poised to connect to Australia’s main grid with the energy market operator revealing almost 150 projects representing more than 31 GW of new capacity are in the application and pre-registration stages.

Victorian network operator AusNet has commenced construction of a transmission network upgrade that is expected to reduce generation constraints and improve network stability in the state’s southwest, unlocking 1.5 GW of additional renewable energy generation capacity.

GCube Insurance says that hail damage accounts for less than 2% of filed claims but constitutes more than 50% of total costs for solar facility loss claims.

One of Australia’s largest property developers has joined forces with Energy Bay, which specialises in distributed renewable energy solutions for property landlords. Energy Bay is making it possible for Stockland to utilise the energy produced at its properties with large rooftops and low energy use, such as its warehouses, to provide extra energy for its high-energy use properties.

Another small-scale solar farm has connected to the grid in Victoria with developer Bison Energy announcing that the 4.95 MW Cosgrove Solar Farm near Shepperton has powered up, marking the commencement of its commissioning phase.

Australians have installed a record number of both heat pumps and rooftop solar system this quarter, according to Clean Energy Regulator. If Q4, typically solar’s biggest quarter, proves substantial, the nation could match its annual rooftop record of 3.2 GW set in 2021.

New South Wales was home to 13 of the top 20 performing solar farms in November, with the state generating 682 GWh from utility-scale PV. Overall, Australia’s large-scale renewable generation was up 7% from the previous November, Rystad’s Senior Renewables Analyst Dave Dixon said.

Redback Technologies has announced inverters certified as compliant with Queensland’s dynamic connections for energy exports. This enables homeowners to export energy back into the grid at a flexible rate so that energy output is only limited in roughly 2% of the time when excess power from PV installations would overwhelm the grid.

* rooftop PV is a dominant factor, though there are others… such as the ongoing need for ‘Keeping the Lights on Services’ (which large-scale VRE largely does not supply).