Installations

While Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is putting the finishing touches on the Federal Budget, the Northern Territory Government has already rolled out its 2021-22 Budget and solar PV and battery storage are among its spending priorities with an extra $4.8 million invested in existing renewable energy schemes.

Solar infrastructure business New Energy Solar remains committed to offloading its Australian assets, confirming the sale of its 87 MW Beryl and 47 MW Manildra solar farms in central west New South Wales is “progressing well”.

The federal government will provide $131 million of soft loans for a $177 million, 100 MW solar park near the Jamuna river in Bangladesh’s Jamalpur district, where a second park of a similar size is being planned by Dhaka and a Chinese partner.

More than 100 Australian businesses, including some of the country’s largest, have banded together to put pressure on government to commit at least 1% of GDP to a green energy recovery in the May budget and to ensure a more equitable transition to renewables for marginalised Australians.

Three commercial-scale hydrogen projects have been conditionally approved for $103.3 million in funding from the government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency, including Western Australian green ammonia project from Engie, as well two hydrogen + gas blend projects from ATCO and Australian Gas Networks respectively.

A clean energy investment firm based in Canada but already with a growing portfolio in Australia has set out an expansion plan in excess of $2 billion and 1.3 GW for the creation of a Renewable Energy Hub of South Australia, including at least three massive solar projects, two of which would supply South Australia’s green hydrogen ambitions.

First Solar and Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser AS have announced they will collaborate to develop power plant control and other supervisory systems as part of a broader plan to build integrated photovoltaic-hydrogen power plants.

On New South Wales’s Northern Rivers the Tweed Shire Council has unanimously voted to push into the second phase of its pursuit of net zero emissions from its electricity usage by 2030. The move will see the Council’s solar capacity almost triple through 10 new solar installations.

The Northeast Asian nation has included PV projects exceeding 20 MW in size for the first time in its solar energy procurement scheme. Selected projects will be awarded a fixed rate under a 20-year contract under the country’s renewable energy certificate (REC) scheme and will sell electricity to local power distributors.

Silicon Valley-based start-up Gridtential has secured US$12 million (AU$15.5m) in funds to develop what it calls the world’s first factory-ready, single-block, 24V, deep-cycle lead battery. The product is claimed to be ideal for personal mobility vehicles and renewable energy storage in homes and offices.