Residential PV

With 4.4 GW of new renewable energy capacity installed and almost a quarter of Australia’s electricity supply now coming from renewable energy sources, 2019 was another year of extraordinary growth, according to the latest edition of the Clean Energy Australia report. As rooftop solar continued its record-breaking streak, big PV made up more than two-thirds of Australia’s large-scale renewable energy capacity installed last year. Meanwhile, the battery storage sector started to gain momentum.

Hanoi has set new feed-in tariff rates for utility-scale, rooftop and floating PV projects, ending a long period of policy uncertainty. The government has announced the new rates, which are broadly in line with industry expectations, roughly 10 months after the expiration of its old tariffs.

Before social-distancing became a thing, Western Australia stood apart from the rest of the country. Defined by remoteness, the state is beginning to embrace its identity, and cure itself of network headaches at the same time, with the uptake of stand-alone power systems (SPS).

Analysis from Green Energy Markets shows the Australian rooftop PV market in robust health during the first three months of 2020. According to STC data, more than 30,000 rooftop installations were registered in the month, for a total of close to 250 MW of capacity. And then came Covid-19.

France’s Sunbooster has developed a technology to cool down solar modules when their ambient temperature exceeds 25 C. The solution features a set of pipes that spread a thin film of water onto the glass surface of the panels in rooftop PV systems and ground-mounted plants. The cooling systems collect the water from rainwater tanks and then recycle, filter and store it again. The company claims the technology can facilitate an annual increase in power generation of between 8% and 12%.

Before Growatt won the Top Brand PV Seal award, back when “quarantine” was a foreign concept and foreign lands familiar, pv magazine took its annual China Road Trip to Shenzen to visit Growatt and learn about the company supplying solutions to 10% of Australian residential PV installs.

With the Australian solar industry fast heading towards a significant downturn, the Clean Energy Council has reported that it will be “unlikely and difficult” for new rooftop solar installations to be classified as an essential service if restrictions are tightened. Despite the apparent gloom, industry experts advise that there are opportunities as householders look to invest in their homes during the Covid-19 crisis.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has published its first knowledge sharing report under its landmark virtual power plant (VPP) demonstrations program, which is intended to provide insights into the scalability and network services potential of VPPs. The report details how the South Australia-based Tesla-Energy Locals VPP responded to price signals and frequency level and helps further understand the benefits consumers can have from participating in VPPs.

The REC Group’s novel Alpha 72 module has tested through the roof and is looking to come in on the roof of the market, literally. pv magazine Australia sat down with REC’s Paul Scerri to lay the module out.

The impact of COVID-19 will leave its mark on our society and economy while a sliding Australian dollar is likely to make imported goods more expensive. In its webinar held on Thursday, the Smart Energy Council is discussing business tips on how to weather the storm over the next six months. And a question arises: Can residential and commercial solar and storage buck the trend against the economic recession which is on the way?