Installations

Australia’s two dominant tracker companies, Nextracker and Array Technologies, are launching terrain following products which the companies claim mitigate, sometimes even eliminate, the need for earthworks on site, opening up a host of previously unsuitable land for solar. Nextracker has just completed its first terrain-following project in Australia, with Array Technologies’ line set for delivery in the second half of 2023.

The Australian arm of Philippines-based AC Energy Corporation, or ACEN, has had its vision for an 8 GW clean energy portfolio including solar, wind, battery and pumped hydro supported by a $75 million (USD 48 million) investment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

“Integration” was the war cry at this year’s All Energy conference in Melbourne, with an unmistakable push, especially among ‘premium’ brands, toward vertically stacked product suites bundling solar, batteries, energy management platforms, virtual power plants and electric vehicle chargers into one super solution. How big is the market for such a proposition in Australia though? And does streamlining stymie flexibility? pv magazine Australia spoke to a number of brands on the promise, and limits, of the full stack strategy.

Set to land on Australian shores in Dec. 2022, German solar panel manufacturer AE Solar has modified a panel to meet the continent’s particular stress factors, including our far higher temperatures, UV doses and humidity. “Since we think it’s a kind of localised, or environmentally adapted module, we think it can be a selling factor for this particular line,” AE Solar’s Head of R&D, Dr Hamed Hanifi, told pv magazine Australia during Melbourne’s All Energy conference last week.

The Malaysian authorities have revealed that they will extend power purchase agreements from the fourth LSS4 tender for large-scale PV from 21 to 25 years.

New releases, a confluence of auspicious milestones, and output growing by gigawatts gave Trina Solar in Australia cause to celebrate at All-Energy this week.

Swiss energy storage company Energy Vault has been awarded the contract to supply the in development 330 MW Meadow Creek Solar Farm in Victoria with a 250 MW/500 MWh battery energy storage system.

A new study has calculated that the globalised PV module supply chain has saved billions for PV installers in Germany, the US and China. It also found that if strong nationalistic policies that limit the free flow of talent and capital were implemented going forward, solar panel costs would be 20-25% higher by 2030.

A US research team claims to have demonstrated that increasing the spacing of solar panels between rows improves PV system efficiency and economics by allowing airflow to cool down the modules. The method could improve a project’s LCOE by as much as 2.15% in certain climates.

A commercial and residential solar installation company with diversified interests as a developer of some of Australia’s biggest solar farms, Leeson Group is now taking a high-performance, Australian-engineered solar roof tile to the global market.