Installations

New Zealand renewables developer Lodestone Energy’s plans to develop an initial suite of five large-scale solar farms with a combined generation capacity of more than 365 GWh per annum has reached another milestone with construction beginning on the second of the projects.

The Australian Energy Regulator has handed down its final decision on when electricity networks are permitted to impose zero export limits on rooftop solar systems. The answer: almost never.

Over the Easter weekend there were a number of different tasks to work through – including sorting out what to do about electricity supply at home. Understandably I drew the short straw on that task.

Sarcos has designed a robotic PV construction solution that delivers, detects, lifts, and places PV modules in large-scale solar plants. It has recently field tested and validated the prototype solution in a pilot project funded by the US Department of Energy.

Australia federal Labor government has approved 11 new renewable energy and transmission projects in since the election in May 2022. There are currently another 95 renewable projects under assessment.

The structured bidding trajectory of India’s tenders will provide sufficient time for renewables developers to plan their finances, develop business plans, and manage the supply chain more efficiently, says Indian Power Minister R.K. Singh.

Community opposition to renewable projects tends to be dismissed as NIMBY-ism, an attitude of not-in-my-back-yard. To do so fails to recognise the character and potential claws of the globally growing movement, as well as the renewable sectors’ own role in rearing resentments. Australian reporter Bella Peacock investigates the emotional thread that ties the particularities of opposition movements together, and ways developers can defuse the charge.

A South Australian racecourse has now become a fully operational DC-coupled solar and battery farm. The Berri Energy Project, owned by retailer Flow Power, is part of the company’s strategy to build up to 50 MW of mid-scale (sub 5 MW) projects to supplement its offtake portfolio, Flow Power COO Byron Serjeanston told pv magazine Australia.

Sun Cable’s troubled $30-plus billion (USD 20 billion) mega solar and storage project has received a welcome boost with resources company Tivan announcing it has penned a deal with the developer for the potential offtake of up to 300 MW of renewable electricity to support a planned critical minerals processing facility in the Northern Territory.

A Victorian solar installer that ignored a seven-metre fall risk on a job site in Geelong has been convicted and ordered to pay almost $40,000 after pleading guilty to three charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.