Installations

“The Sapphire” is one of the first passive houses in New South Wales (NSW). Located in the Blue Mountains’ village of Foulconbridge, “The Sapphire” is a carbon zero house utilising an SMA Energy System consisting of a Sunny Boy solar inverter and a Sunny Boy Storage battery inverter providing clean solar power.

The Queensland government has pledged to support Genex’s project at Kidston with up to $132 million. The funding will be used to build a single circuit transmission line and connect a massive pumped hydro project with the main grid, unlocking additional stages for the clean energy hub, including up to 270 MW of additional solar and up to 150 MW of wind.

The Clean Energy Regulator has confirmed it has approved enough capacity to meet the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET). While this is a great achievement for the renewables industry, the question remains what comes beyond 2020. Although analysts expect a slow down, ANU researchers find the record installation rates will see Australia surpass the scrapped target of 41,000 GWh of renewable energy generation around the end of 2020.

The state plans to achieve half the amount by 2021-22 under its new draft solar policy. The package also suggests establishing a research hub, privately financed solar parks and encouraging commercial self-consumption of clean energy.

Auckland’s electricity and water utility companies have announced a project to build New Zealand’s largest solar array, which will be situated atop a wastewater treatment pond.

Only hours after the release of the boosted September allocation of rooftop PV rebates, Solar Victoria’s application portal crashed, leaving applicants frustrated.

Mathematicians at Canada’s University of Waterloo who turned their attention to solar power have developed an algorithm they say offers better control over PV plant output. The researchers estimate the algorithm could improve the output of a 100 MW power plant by almost a million kilowatt-hours per year.

Universities from South Australia to Queensland are embedding renewable-energy technology in their operations and teaching. Last week, the University of the Sunshine Coast in collaboration with Veolia introduced a cold-water tank — effectively a 7 MW battery — to the range of innovative options for reducing electricity costs and the carbon footprint of large, energy-hungry institutions.

Despite what Rystad Energy analysts describe as “a few teething issues” caused by the rapid uptake of solar PV, and renewables in general, in Australia and Vietnam, the flow of proposed utility-scale solar projects in both countries looks set to continue over the coming few years.

Copper miner Oz Minerals has announced its intention to source as much power as possible for its West Musgrave Project through solar PV and wind hybrid generation. The increasing cost of fossil fuels is driving many mining companies to seek renewable alternatives.