Installations

Scientists led by the Technical University of Denmark have begun a project to design solar cells that can be produced in different colors with minimal effect on performance, making them suitable for building-integrated and other applications with aesthetic considerations.

The full program has been announced for the Quality Roundtable event to be held at All Energy Australia later this month in Melbourne. Real world case studies involving PID, hotspots, and backsheet failures will be discussed, as with processes for warranty claims when inverters, modules or other solar components fail.

iSwitch, Singapore’s largest green energy retailer, and one of the city-state’s top three retailers overall, has emerged as the first potential customer for the $25 billion Sun Cable Project. This pledge is the second significant boost for the project in the last week after tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes declared he would help fund the project.

The lights are on for Queensland’s Solar for Renters program, but nobody’s home. In a state where solar should be selling faster than hotcakes, landlords and tenants are slow to take up the government’s solar rebate.

The Boonanarring Mineral Sands Project in the North Perth Basin is set to receive a behind-the-meter installation to complement its existing grid-connected power supply. The project is the first significant investment by Climate Capital after its first-round capital raise 18-months ago.

A 6 MW solar plant and 5 MW/2.5 MWh storage system are set to increase the share of renewable electricity on the Pacific island of Nauru from 3% to 47%. The $27 million project is being supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

As part of a broader push to develop a domestic hydrogen industry, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing $2.9 million for two studies into using solar and wind-powered hydrogen for ammonia. Both project are located in Queensland and presently use natural gas as feedstock.

The Sydney-based developer has raised funding for the development of a 30 MW CSP project which will be collocated with a 20 MW PV plant. The company’s innovative technology, which uses sodium as a heat transfer fluid to capture concentrated solar energy that can then be stored and used on-demand on the utility-scale, has earned Vast Solar an international award for dispatchable renewable energy technology.

U.S. research corporation MITRE and the new Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre will partner to take on cybersecurity threats, with an initial focus on protecting South Australia’s smart grid.

Western Australia’s biggest generator and retailer Synergy has blamed rooftop solar for bleeding red ink in the past financial year.