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Fledgling residential solar PV and battery storage provider Plico Energy will look to accelerate the expansion of its customer base in its home state of Western Australia after securing a $4 million capital injection.

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

The farming community of Scaddan, 50km off Western Australia’s southern coast, has kicked off the state’s Solar Schools Program with the first of 30 planned systems installed.

The Chinese leader has revealed some details of his nation’s commitment to go carbon neutral by 2060. That solar and wind power promise could even prove to be a conservative estimate, according to the nation’s solar industry.

When Komo Energy founders Gerald Arends and Jonathan Prendergast spoke to pv magazine Australia almost six weeks ago, Australia’s knowledge gap about the mid-scale segment lay between them and their vision of a flowing pipeline of projects.

Allume Energy’s SolShare technology equitably spreads the solar love among residents of community housing and apartment buildings that can install PV on top. It has just achieved the certification that will let residents of “multi family units” across America enjoy the benefits of renewable energy.

Lithgow City Council is smack-bang in the thick of NSW coal country, its surrounds are littered by coal-fired power stations (most of them closed). However, the immunity of solar and energy storage to the power outages brought on by emergencies like bushfires, as well as the Council’s own community goals, means times are a changing.

Spanish tracker giant STI Norland has expanded to Australia with a new subsidiary office in Melbourne. The company is arriving on our shores with a keenness to compete with tracker suppliers who already have their foot in the door. With no solar farm too big or too small, STI Norland Australia CEO Alan Atchison sat down with pv magazine Australia to talk about how the company plans to make tracks Down Under.

Western Australia government-owned utility Horizon Power has engaged Mechanical Project Services to install a combined 2.1 MW of rooftop solar on about 30 schools around the state.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency is chipping in over $700,000 to help Frasers Property Australia build 51 energy efficient homes complete with a solar embedded network. The idea is to demonstrate to the wider housing sector that energy efficient homes can be built at scale and be cost-effective to the customer.