Commercial & Industrial PV

Researchers in the US have published a study that brings 20 years of renewable energy (solar PV and/or wind plus storage) generation into line with historical energy-demand profiles, to ascertain at what storage cost point renewables can cost-effectively consistently meet 100% demand.

Touted as the first green bond issued by a retail property landlord globally, the $300 million instrument will fund initiatives to enhance the environmental performance for three of the retail assets within the QIC Shopping Centre Fund portfolio. The green bond was five times oversubscribed and attracted new investors from across Asia and Australia, as well as a cornerstone investment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

Victoria’s Monash University has unveiled the nation’s largest hybrid battery storage system as part of a microgrid that will cover 100% of power needs at its biggest campus with renewable energy.

The growing share of rooftop solar had a significant impact on Australia’s main grid in the latest quarter, both in terms of reducing operational demand and emissions intensity, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said. Looking ahead, AEMO is seeking to procure off-market emergency reserves to help protect the grid from potential summer blackouts the upcoming summer, as coal generator outages grow in frequency.

On Friday, ReNu Energy signed an agreement for the sale of its solar assets, including Shopping Centres Australasia arrays, to commercial-rooftop-solar startup CleanPeak Energy.

Phillip Island Nature Parks, which manages the fairy penguin’s habitat on the island, has built a new visitor centre powered by solar energy. The 200 kW system installed by Gipplsand Solar is featuring Trina modules coupled with Fronius inverters.

The program will test the potential of distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar systems, battery storage and controllable load devices, aggregated into virtual power plants (VPPs), to provide scalable energy and network services traditionally performed by large-scale, conventional electricity generators. With registration open, the Australian Energy Market Operator wants VPPs to register to accelerate the shared learning on how to safely and efficiently integrate, operate and regulate these emerging technologies into the National Electricity Market.

Even though it is winter, solar capacity is now sufficiently large that it drove renewable energy’s share of the electricity market up above 30% in the middle of the day for 20 out of 30 days of June, finds Green Energy Markets.

Raptor Maps has some 700 MW of Australian solar farms under monitoring by aerial thermal imaging. Compared to the company’s worldwide customer base, Australian PV plant experiences roughly the same average percentage — between 1.5% and 2% — of power affected by faults and defects as global installations.

Metal wrap-through technology combined with PERC confers multiple benefits on Sunport Power’s new solar modules. Add the involvement of UNSW’s Professor Martin Green in the product development, Sunport’s 1.4 GW production capacity and a 30-year performmance warranty by insurer Lloyds… Two Australian wholesalers have started shipping.