Commercial & Industrial PV

Australia’s main electricity grid is predicted to increase its solar, wind, and energy storage capacity by more than 150 GW by 2043 according to new projections published by energy market consultancy and research group Cornwall Insight.

Rooftop solar installations in Australia recorded a 6% jump in October with the latest monthly data revealing 279 MW of small-scale rooftop PV was installed on household and business roofs across the country last month.

Each expansion unit adds another 13.5 kWh of storage capacity to the original installation with a maximum of three such units connected to a single Powerwall. Now available in the United States, the new product comes at a lower cost and slashes installation time by roughly half to 22 minutes.

The results of this year’s Kiwa PVEL scorecard have shown that TOPCon technology is more vulnerable than PERC, and the failure rate at bill of materials has increased to 41%, the highest in history, according to the testing lab.

The International Energy Agency’s latest report, which maps out the future evolution of clean energy manufacturing, says the combined global market for PV, wind turbines, electric cars, batteries, electrolysers, and heat pumps will rise from $1 trillion in 2023 to more than $3 trillion by 2035.

Western Australian transport and logistics giant Centurion is building a fully integrated off-grid energy system including rooftop solar and on-site battery energy storage to help accelerate its shift to electric vehicles.

Labelled the “most difficult” in the world, Australia’s regulatory environment and grid connection process for new large-scale renewable energy generation and storage has also been lauded as the standard bearer for the global market.

Mechanically simple technology designed to maximise utility-scale solar module yield with the removal of soiling will underly SunBrush mobil Germany’s build of a robotic solution for commercial rooftop systems, destined for the Australian market once complete.

The Clean Energy Regulator’s decision to suspend online trading platform Greenbot from participating in the Australian government’s rooftop solar rebate scheme has been reinstated by the Federal Court.

While Australia continues to be a revelatory solar market internationally, it lost its place in the top 10 solar installers globally in 2023, the IEA PVPS team reports. According to Renate Egan, Executive Director for the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, it is the first time in 30 years Australia has dropped off that list. “What’s sad is that the rest of the world is now taking off and investing in solar and we’re falling behind,” she said at Melbourne’s All Energy on Thursday.