Installations

Greek energy company Mytilineos and its subsidiary Metka EGN continue to put down roots in the Australian market, signing a Power Purchasing Agreement which will allow construction to commence on its 23 MW extension to Wagga Wagga North Solar Farm. The extension comes after the company was fined in January for breaching its Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit by commencing works without first notifying Heritage NSW, leading to the destruction of Indigenous artefacts.

Greater dispatchability will be required from solar as it becomes increasingly mainstream worldwide, or investors could experience diminishing returns as a victim of the technology’s success at bearing down on electricity prices.

Energy giant AGL has signed a memorandum of understanding with Finnish technology company Wärtsilä, to develop large-scale hybrid energy systems for AGL’s commercial and industrial customers.

India had installed 6.8 GW of cumulative rooftop PV capacity by the end of 2020, with consumer-owned systems accounting for about 72% of the total, according to Bridge to India.

Pandemic uncertainties have concentrated key solar players and “heightened competition for ‘survival of the fittest'”, says JinkoSolar Chairman and CEO Xiande Li. The company’s latest figures show it is well placed in Australia and in the global arena.

Australia’s solar and wind generation surged in March, according to Rystad Energy’s latest Watts Generating report, and perhaps most importantly a new wave of solar PV — primarily in energy-hungry NSW — is in the commissioning phase to come fully online in coming months.

Call it “latent energy” – Australia’s renewable resources are expected to help some of the world’s greatest polluters to reach their net-zero emissions targets, writes Natalie Filatoff, senior editor at pv magazine Australia.

Giant PV and wind projects are taking shape in Australia’s north, with the aim of supplying Asia with the clean energy it needs for decades to come. The Asian Renewable Energy Hub is one such project, as it targets green hydrogen production at a cost of $1.50/kg. Sacha Thacker, chief strategy officer at InterContinental Energy – one of the companies trying to the get the ambitious initiative off the ground – says that while the scale of projects today boggles the mind, the coming demand is more boggling still.

Concerned that a lack of understanding in the community is hindering the uptake of rooftop solar, a New South Wales local council has struck an agreement with the Australian Energy Foundation in a bid to demystify solar PV and battery energy storage systems.

Commercial installation and service provider Solar Professionals will install almost 3 MW of solar PV across the rooftops of more than 800 homes in New South Wales after landing a new contract with the Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO).