Residential PV

The Queensland government has launched a solar panel recycling scheme with the launch of the first of 15 sites collection sites that are to be established across the state. The program is expected to save 26 tonnes of broken or end-of-life solar panels from landfill annually and will inform the possible rollout of a nationwide scheme.

BloombergNEF says the global solar industry will install 592 GW of modules this year, up 33% on 2023. The consultancy has also lowered its estimate for 2024 polysilicon production, as manufacturers are temporarily scaling back output.

The Australian government’s Energy Update 2024 shows solar electricity generation grew 21% in the 2022-23 period and is 11 times higher than a decade ago, jumping 3% in each of the past two years.

Rooftop solar system uptake and 1.2 GW of large-scale solar projects brought online in the past 12 months, have boosted grid reliability in the National Electricity Market, demonstrating a trend the Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts will continue but not without ongoing clean energy investments.

Researchers have covered part of a rooftop solar plant with varying numbers of shading cloth layers and continued to measure the power, current, and voltage of the system. They have been able to identify a point after which the value of system current and maximum power is no longer sensitive to shading heaviness.

In the next decade, the Victorian government’s four pillar energy plan will seek to add a minimum of 6.3 GW of rooftop solar, 1.2 GW of large distributed solar up to 30 MW, and 3 GW of utility solar.

Nearly a decade after the first iteration of its Powerwall home battery system was released, electric car and battery manufacturer Tesla has officially launched the Powerwall 3 in Australia and New Zealand with the first deliveries expected next month.

Thousands more homes and businesses in regional Western Australia now have the option to install rooftop PV with Horizon Power announcing it has completed the rollout of internet-connected technology that eliminates network hosting capacity constraints in its service area.

The Australian Energy Market Commmission has released new rules giving consumers more value from and control over their energy use while retailers get more options to bill individual consumer energy resources, such as electric vehicles.

A rapid uptake of consumer and distribution energy resources in Australia sets the stage for their role in the transition but if legacy operating systems don’t keep up the pace they risk falling short of delivering their potential, a new report finds.