The New South Wales government has released new guidelines for PV power plant developers in the state. The guidelines encourage “early consultation, continual consultation and suitable site selection.”

The Clean Energy Council has tallied the numbers underlying Australia’s large scale renewables boom. And big PV is shattering all records, with almost $11.5 billion in projects currently being constructed.

In an attempt to encourage more large scale renewable development while maintaining grid stability, Western Power has introduced its Generator Interim Access (GIA) mechanism for 900 MW of wind and large scale solar projects. The GIA will open the door for some PV power plant projects to go ahead in the state, if they agree to curtail production when instructed to do so by the grid operator.

All state and national approvals have been secured for a massive wind project in central Queensland. The 800 MW wind farm is part of a major renewable energy hybrid project, which is planned to include up to 400 MW of solar and a battery energy storage facility that have already secured state approval.

In an extraordinary demonstration of the delays facing many Australian large scale PV power plant projects, the 50 MW Kidston Solar Project has achieved Practical Completion around 12 months after energisation.

That would mean a market increase of around 25% on this year. Demand is predicted to become particularly strong in the second half of the year. Australia is forecast to see lower demand than usual in the first quarter, but also be among 16 nations worldwide that will add over 1 GW of solar capacity in 2019.

Renewable generation in the National Energy Market has set the fifth consecutive monthly record high in November, due to eight new solar farms coming online over the last two months. The National Energy Emissions Audit released by The Australia Institute tallied the figures. Despite solar’s growth, evidence coming from the Federal Government reveals a continuing upward trend in emissions since 2013.

The University of Queensland has completed the purchase of the $125 Warwick Solar Farm in the Southern Downs region, making it the largest solar asset in ownership of an Australian university. Lendlease will act as developer on the project.

If maintained, Australia’s current rate of installs would deliver 78% renewables by 2030, find Green Energy Markets in its latest edition of RE Index. The 50% renewables target proposed by the the Federal Labor Party and several state Labor governments would thus deliver a sharp market decline, with installations falling to a third of recent rates and workforce shrinking by three quarters.

EPC contractor Decmil Group has selected Nextracker’s NX Horizon solar trackers for the 255 MW Sunraysia Solar Farm, one of Australia’s largest solar farms located in New South Wales.