Installations

Stand-alone power systems (SPS) have reaffirmed its lead amongst technologies racing to transform energy in rural Western Australia.

In a matter of weeks, Brisbane’s Calamvale Central will become the first facility in Retail First’s privately-owned shopping centre portfolio to be powered by rooftop PV. More installations are expected to follow.

The bank has become the latest Australian signatory of The Climate Group’s RE100 initiative, joining a growing pool of businesses in the global transition to a zero-carbon grid.

Evergen is looking to boost its growth in Australia and expand overseas as it opens a major capital raising campaign to private and wholesale investors on VentureCrowd.

The Kidston solar-pumped hydro project is back on its feet after Japanese utility J-Power and Genex Power renegotiated their deal with the extension of funding provided by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Board earlier this month. The project had been thrown off-course after a shock decision by EnergyAustralia not to finalise a purchase agreement.

Under the business-as-usual scenario, Western Australia could use up its Paris-Agreement 1.5°C compatible carbon budget within 12 years but a massive ramping up of renewable energy capacity would unlock significant economic opportunities for the state, finds a report by Berlin-based science and policy institute Climate Analytics.

The University of Wollongong’s Sustainable Buildings Research Centre has become the first building in Australia to achieve full marks under the world’s toughest sustainability standard for buildings, the Living Building Challenge. With 468 solar panels to support net-zero energy, an onsite rainwater system to enable net-zero water performance, and use of environmentally safe and reused building materials, the building is a demonstration of the value of the research the SBRC team carries out. 

The coastal town of Onslow in the Pilbara has had its much-anticipated standalone solar farm and battery completed this week, making it one of Australia’s largest distributed energy resource microgrids.

South Australia has won this year’s state and territory renewables race, with the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania hot on its heels. As the state governments continue to step up action on climate change, the Federal Government is acting as an obstacle to investment, finds the Climate Council.

A group of Melbourne’s prominent universities and businesses are combining their purchasing power to source their electricity from a large scale renewable energy project in Victoria.