Installations

Soon 2020 will only be a worry to future high-school history students. But when they ask us if anything good at all happened in 2020, remember this review and tell them that solar PV shone in the darkness. Despite the mess of it all, 2020 has been another good year for Australian solar. The industry has demonstrated resilience, and significant progress has been made in the fields of energy storage, green hydrogen and others.

A small number of utility-scale PV arrays of an entirely different nature are taking shape Down Under. Over the past six years, Aussie solar startup 5B has been developing and deploying its pre-assembled and relocatable Maverick mounting structures “on a shoestring budget.” But with a major solar developer having joined as a strategic investor, the company is now looking to make prefabricated arrays a mainstream option for utility-scale PV.

An award-winning Australian solar-powered ‘water battery’ has been lauded as an unmitigated success with figures from the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) revealing the system generated more than 3 GWh of electricity in its first 12 months of operation.

Australian gold mining company Gold Road Resources will be relying on a ‘state-of-the-art’ renewable energy system as it continues operations at its Yamarna exploration camp about 1,200 kilometres east of Perth.

Australia has cemented its place at the vanguard of the solar energy industry with a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report confirming the nation has the highest installed solar PV capacity per capita in the world.

Construction is set to commence on one of the largest behind-the-meter solar power installations in Australia with Beon Energy Solutions to begin work next month on a 19 MW solar farm at Melbourne Water’s Eastern Treatment Plant (ETP).

The farming community of Scaddan, 50km off Western Australia’s southern coast, has kicked off the state’s Solar Schools Program with the first of 30 planned systems installed.

How Australia deals with its solar grid integration, for industry veteran Wilf Johnston, 2021’s most consequential issue. Revamping the way the industry proposes battery storage to Aussie customers and safety are also key areas to watch, he says.

Vena Australia has reached financial close on its 100 MW and 150 MWh Wandoan South Big Battery thanks to ING Australia. The international bank is increasingly financing green energy projects but this is the first standalone battery project it has financed in the Asia Pacific. Vena Energy Australia says this phase is just the beginning of a project that is to feature 650 MW of solar PV and 450 MW of battery storage.

The Chinese leader has revealed some details of his nation’s commitment to go carbon neutral by 2060. That solar and wind power promise could even prove to be a conservative estimate, according to the nation’s solar industry.