Residential PV

Western Australia’s regional utility Horizon Power has installed a battery system in Exmouth on the state’s northern coast, unlocking 2 MW of solar hosting capacity. The installation is one of nine batteries being installed by the utility across the state and is arguably a more effective rendition of a “community battery.”

Network operator Essential Energy has installed its first grid-scale battery energy storage system on the New South Wales electricity network as part of a “critical” trial designed to allow more renewable energy into the grid and drive better network utilisation.

Rooftop solar stronghold Western Australia has been offered a glimpse of its energy future with the market operator having activated its first virtual power plant to prevent household blackouts after heatwave conditions sparked concern for the state’s main energy grid.

Solar and storage analyst Sunwiz is predicting an inversion of many of the trends that dominated the industry in 2022. While rooftop solar has bounced back after a disappointing year, Sunwiz founder Warwick Johnston tells pv magazine Australia, the utility segment’s position looks dire.

Australian-headquartered solar data specialist Solcast has been acquired by Norwegian energy assurance and risk management company DNV as it seeks to strengthen its solar forecasting services to help maximise the value of PV power plants globally.

Former solar installer Gavin Brady has been convicted by a Victorian magistrate after an investigation by the Clean Energy Regulator found he falsely claimed to have installed 11 solar systems. When converted to Small-scale Technology Certificates, those false claims were worth $50,000 (USD 35,500).

A new code for retailers of ‘new energy tech’ products including rooftop solar, battery energy storage systems, electrical vehicle chargers and other emerging energy products and services has been introduced to raise consumer protection standards in Australia.

Last year was a tricky one for solar, with each segment from residential to commercial to utility behaving quite differently. The industry trends have been laid out in Sunwiz’s latest Australian PV Report and pv magazine Australia takes a dive into what happened and what there is to learn.

Renewable energy generation provided a record high proportion of Australia’s electricity mix in the final three months of 2022, supplying on average more than 40% of power in the nation’s main grid, eclipsing the previous record of 35.8% set in the same period the previous year.

Australian energy software provider Evergen will take its solar and battery optimisation technology to Japan after teaming with Japanese companies Sharing Energy and Sassor on a pilot project to explore how to best commercialise distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar and residential battery energy storage systems, in Japan.