Commercial & Industrial PV

Australian commercial solar outfit CleanPeak Energy continues to build out its utility-scale PV portfolio, announcing it has achieved financial close on the 40 MWp Wangaratta Solar Farm being developed in northern Victoria.

Sofar, a China-based inverter and battery manufacturer, has introduced a new series of microinverters for balcony solar arrays and rooftop PV systems. They have a 97.5% efficiency rating and offer between 500 VA and 2,400 VA of rated power.

The world’s most efficient energy network, at an Antarctic research base, has had a solar upgrade, reports Tristan Rayner.

The South Australian government is calling for input from industry and consumers to help it determine what role rooftop solar, batteries, electric vehicles, green hydrogen and other renewable technologies will play in its future energy system.

The Clean Energy Regulator is calling for applications from individuals and organisations to serve as the product listing body that will be responsible for publishing and maintaining lists of approved solar panels and inverters eligible for use in Australia’s solar rebate program.

Popular toilet paper company Who Gives A Crap has installed a rooftop solar system on its Melbourne warehouse spelling out the words ‘we give a crap.’

With increasing numbers of resources companies turning to renewable energy to cut costs and carbon emissions, independent power producer Pacific Energy has been awarded a contract to deliver a combined 62 MW of wind and solar generation and battery energy storage to help power a gold mine in remote Western Australia.

Australia’s world-leading uptake of distributed energy resources introduces potential new entry points to the grid, ushering in a legion of complex and novel cybersecurity considerations. The first in a two-part series, pv magazine Australia talks to experts about at what’s being done in this rapidly evolving landscape and where vulnerabilities lay.

Scientists in Europe have put together a comprehensive guide to PV module degradation, examining literature and case studies on the topic as far back as the 1990s. Their paper details the primary stress factors faced by modules in the field, the most common modes of degradation and failure, and provides clear definitions relevant to reliability, quality and testing standards. Among their key findings is that a full understanding of how combinations of different stresses over varying timeframes is still missing from methods to estimate and improve system reliability.

Australian retailing major Officeworks has flicked the switch on its first behind-the-meter rooftop solar and battery energy storage system as it works towards using only renewable electricity to power operations by 2025 as part of its ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030.