Installations

The amount and nature of desert dust determines whether daily cleaning of solar modules is a favorable option. However, frequent and water-intensive cleaning, as well as the amount of labor required, can be costly in desert installations. But the ingenuity of automation is on its way to help.

Wholesale electricity prices on the NEM can peak during heatwaves and when aging coal generators conk out. Amber Electric customers can both profit from but also bear the brunt of price spikes, but when they have solar+storage the upside is significant. Importantly solar homes can provide a valuable service to the grid, says Amber Electric Founder and CEO Chris Thompson.

Solar ‘lease-to-own’ installer ShineHub has chosen Hanwha Q Cells as preferred solar panel provider for its Community Solar Program under the South Australian battery scheme.

Shell Australia has “well advanced” plans for a 120 MW utility scale PV array to supply its QGC onshore gas operations in northern Queensland. The announcement was made Shell Australia Chairman Zoe Yujnovich during a speech today, in which she pointed to an Australian “energy transition” in which “electrons will play a bigger role”.

Backed by an estimated $15 million raised from the sale of renewable energy certificates, EnergyAustralia will install free solar PV and battery systems for participating charitable organizations, with the goal to connect them into a virtual power plant and slash their electricity bills by as much as 50%.

In the aftermath of January’s blackouts in Victoria and South Australia, public policy think thank Grattan Institute underlines that blaming renewable energy for supply failures is wrong and dangerous. The new report flies in the face of repeated claims by the Coalition government that renewables are undermining the reliability of electricity system.

A $2.2 million trial run by Jemena, AusNet Services, and UNSW Sydney will explore how existing network infrastructure can better integrate with solar power, as Australia’s rooftop PV uptake goes from strength to strength.

Australia’s more than 1,300 golf clubs can each spend upwards of $100,000 a year on electricity bills in the process of managing their greens and running their clubhouses. Today AEES Group announced an exclusive partnership with Golf Management Australia, to provide customised energy-efficiency audits and solar solutions that can reduce Australian clubs’ carbon footprint, and their grid-derived energy by up to 60%.

The growing market for tracker-mounted solar within the U.S. commercial and industrial market is being driven squarely by mammoth utility bills that often include time-of-use charges and total demand charges. Single-axis and double-axis systems are being deployed on warehouses, at agricultural facilities, factories, mines, landfills, carports, and other sites, often with a payback of only a few years, equipment sellers say.

The 240 MW Prairie Solar Farm in Victoria has moved forward with a planning permission and the 315 MW Clarke Creek Solar Farm in Queensland has received a material change of use permit.