Installations

The share of renewables in Australia’s main electricity grid has reached a new high, with rooftop and grid-scale solar, wind and hydro combining to deliver more than 70% of the total underlying demand on Wednesday.

Australia’s biggest coal miner has inked a major renewable energy deal that will utilise solar, wind and pumped hydro to provide about half the forecasted electricity demand of its central Queensland operations.

Chinese company GoodWe will now be offering specialised carport solar panels to the Australian market, which it says are designed to overcome issues around water drainage and wiring.

Mytilineos’ 75 MW Wyalong Solar Farm in the New South Wales Riverina region has now begun feeding into the grid, with almost two thirds of its generation contracted to NBN Australia, the national broadband network.

Rystad Energy believes China could be on track for another record year in 2023, with expectations for more than 150 GW of new PV capacity. The Norwegian consultancy says the country could also potentially install 165 GW in 2024 and 170 GW in 2025.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has proposed increasing price caps on the country’s main electricity market. This is meant to allow investors to respond to fill gaps created by ageing coal generation.

Data shows a sharp increase in the number of fires caused by the DC isolators that separate the grid from solar panels. ABC News gathered state-by-state data revealing a dramatic increase in fire incidents in the last 12 months. 

Japanese company IHI Corporation, which specialises in green ammonia technology to decarbonise industry, has joined the consortium of companies developing the green hydrogen hub HyNQ – North Queensland Clean Energy Project.

The figures for large-scale certificates registrations across most of Australia this year are dismal, despite the nation adopting a far brighter policy landscape. “There’s a very large discrepancy between rhetoric and what’s actually occurring,” Sunwiz managing director Warwick Johnston tells pv magazine.

Zonal Renewables plans to construct a new 100 MW floating solar project on a 90-hectare fishpond in the Philippines, in Cadiz, Negros Occidental province.