Installations

The world’s largest solar PV and battery energy storage project has locked in renewed political support with the Northern Territory government confirming it will introduce special legislation into parliament this week that will facilitate the development of the giga-scale Australia-Asia PowerLink project.

The New South Wales Government has outlined plans for another coordinated renewable energy zone which will deliver at least 2.5GW of new network capacity as the state’s transitions from fossil fuels towards renewable power accelerates.

The Australian arm of U.K.-based global fund manager Octopus Group and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation have added another renewable energy project to their joint venture’s portfolio, announcing they will work with the founders of the Blind Creek Solar Farm near Bungendore in regional New South Wales to deliver the 300MW agri-solar and battery project.

Electricity distributor Endeavour Energy has announced plans to deploy a solar-powered community microgrid featuring 3MW/3.5MWh of battery energy storage in a bid to improve the resilience and reliability of electricity supply for regional communities on the New South Wales South Coast.

Australia has one of the highest per-capita rooftop solar PV installation rates in the world with more than 16GW installed across more than 3 million households but the head of Australian research at U.S.-based analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast a drop off in new installations in 2022.

Renewables developer FRV Australia has announced its 90MW (AC) Sebastopol Solar Farm located in grid-challenged south of New South Wales is now operating at 100% of its capacity.

Nextracker has today launched its new terrain-following, single-axis tracker built specifically for projects on sloped, uneven, and challenging sites. Nextracker believes its new NX Horizon-XTR line will be market-shaping, especially in countries like Australia where opposition to land disturbances of utility-scale solar is growing.

Construction of the Kogan Renewable Hydrogen Demonstration Plant in Queensland’s Western Downs region is expected to start by September, with government-owned CS Energy, the plant’s operator, having finalised the EPC contract with IHI Engineering Australia to construct the project.

New Zealand’s federal government has opened the final funding round in its NZ$14 million (AU$13 million) Māori Housing Renewable Energy Fund, open to small and larger-scale projects.

The rollout of rooftop solar in the remote coastal town of Broome in northern Western Australia is set to get a boost with state-owned regional energy provider Horizon Power installing two centralised community batteries that are expected to unlock more than 1,400kW of solar PV hosting capacity.