Utility Scale PV

5B, the Sydney-based modular solar manufacturer has successfully completed its most recent $12 million funding round, and along with the continued support of existing investors, the clean technology company also received investment support from former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Smart Energy Council Director Simon Holmes à Court. 

New data released by the CEC and confirmed by industry experience, shows investors have become shy of committing to large-scale renewable projects in Australia, where government intervention has created uncertainty, and grid risk is virtually impossible to quantify — even with a prized connection agreement in hand.

TransGrid and ElectraNet have shovels at the ready to begin work on the long-planned and hard-won Project EnergyConnect, which will link three Australian states with much needed capacity for transmission of renewable energy.

Solar rules in any scenario of what the world needs to work towards over the coming three decades, to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees. But analysts at Rystad Energy have arrived at a far greater tally than recent IEA projections of how much PV people will be plugging into.

Minh K Le, senior renewables analyst at Rystad Energy, examines five key trends to watch in Southeast Asia utility-scale solar, as mega-scale projects ramp up, Indonesia emerges, and Vietnam steps back.

Oil and gas giant Woodside Energy is exploring a move into large-scale solar PV, floating plans to develop a 100 MW solar plant alongside its Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

The 50 kW version of the new inverter features an efficiency of 98.6% and a European efficiency of 98.1%. It can be deployed with a decentralised approach, next to the PV modules, or centralised, at the grid connection point.

The Queensland Government is doubling down on its renewable energy strategy, announcing the state’s largest battery is soon to be connected to the grid and unveiling plans to build a large-scale standalone battery alongside the coal-fired Tarong Power Station.

Details are thin on the ground as yet, but Emirati newspaper The National has reported the port facility will be linked to an 800 MW solar field at the site.

Renewable energy developers in Australia have turned their attention to energy storage with the level of investment in utility-scale batteries skyrocketing by more than 300% in the past three months but that has been offset by a worrying decline in the number of large-scale solar PV and wind projects reaching financial close.