Commercial & Industrial PV

Electricity retailer Microgrid Power is starting from scratch but plans to have a “substantial” portfolio of embedded solar PV networks, ranging in capacity from 100-300 kW each, established across Australia by the end of 2021.

Western Australia-based solar glass developer ClearVue has commenced installation of its transparent solar PV glazing panels at what will be the world’s first clear solar glass greenhouse.

The Australian Capital Territory’s latest Feed-in Tarrif report found that Canberrans are increasingly contributing to their territory’s 100% renewable energy supply thanks to the increasing uptake of rooftop solar.

Carnegie Clean Energy’s Garden Island Microgid, which supplies energy to the HMAS Stirling Navy Base, has successfully recommenced operations after a brief disconnection period to allow for Navy upgrades to its electricity system.

The latest in Cleantech Solar’s 500+ MW portfolio of solar projects rolling out on manufacturing-facility rooftops across Asia is a major Indonesian tyre producer set to green the supply chain for future vehicles.

Information technology giant Fujitsu is the latest major company to commit its Australian operations to a renewable energy future, installing a 99.6 kW solar PV system on the roof of its data centre in Brisbane, Queensland.

Solar-based microgrids are transforming island aspirations for prosperity, sustainability and the returning tourist trade.

South Australian utility SA Water is preparing to flick the switch on the “world’s largest” portable solar array with work having commenced on the installation of a 12 MW prefabricated PV system at the Happy Valley Reservoir near Adelaide.

Soon 2020 will only be a worry to future high-school history students. But when they ask us if anything good at all happened in 2020, remember this review and tell them that solar PV shone in the darkness. Despite the mess of it all, 2020 has been another good year for Australian solar. The industry has demonstrated resilience, and significant progress has been made in the fields of energy storage, green hydrogen and others.

A small number of utility-scale PV arrays of an entirely different nature are taking shape Down Under. Over the past six years, Aussie solar startup 5B has been developing and deploying its pre-assembled and relocatable Maverick mounting structures “on a shoestring budget.” But with a major solar developer having joined as a strategic investor, the company is now looking to make prefabricated arrays a mainstream option for utility-scale PV.