Utility Scale PV

Germany-based Wirtgen Invest has entered the large-scale Aussie solar market with the purchase of the 140 MW Glenrowan West Solar Farm, a significant project considering its location in one of the 2020 Integrated System Plan’s Renewable Energy Zones.

The Minerals Council South Africa has urged the government to solve the country’s energy crisis by adding more power generation capacity from both distributed and large-scale renewables. Meanwhile, several mining companies operating in South Africa are planning their own big solar parks, including two 200 MW facilities under development by Sibanye-Stillwater and Vedanta.

The internet’s favorite energy company installed 530 megawatt-hours of battery storage in Q4, beating out the previous record, set last quarter, as well as showing continued improvement in solar installations.

Corporations contracted a record amount of wind and solar energy through power purchase agreements in 2019, up more than 40% from the previous year’s record, says a new report from BloombergNEF. The bulk of this purchasing occurred in the U.S. with tech companies and oil and gas majors leading the charge. In Australia, onsite solar projects delivering power to corporations nearly doubled to 1GW.

Singapore-based developer Vena Energy has announced that it will soon begin construction of Queensland’s largest grid-scale battery near Wandoan in the Western Downs. The 100 MW/150 MWh project will be delivered under a 15-year power purchase agreement with Australia’s biggest power producer, AGL.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is in desperate need of a short-term funding extension as its funds to allocate to new projects is set to dry up by mid-2020. The Australia Institute has published a discussion paper urging the Morrison Government to legislate.

After a leisurely break over the holiday period, I have returned to my desk to get right back into the analysis of what I think will be a pretty exciting year for the NEM. Connection difficulties, commissioning delays and stubbornly high storage costs point to uncertainty on the supply side, while strong rooftop uptake continues to whittle out daytime operational demand.

The breadth and depth of detail in the GSD2019 (to be released today) reveals any number of important insights into the supply side of the NEM. One theme that stood out for me as I reviewed the data was the set of challenges facing the NEM’s most recent crop of new entrant generators – utility-scale solar farms – as they come to grips with the messy reality of the electricity market.

A new report from Hydrogen Council predicts that the cost of renewable hydrogen production will fall drastically by up to 60% over the coming decade due to the declining costs of renewable electricity generation and the scaling up of electrolyzer manufacturing. Thanks to its optimal renewable resources, Australia will be among the countries most favorably placed to contribute to the development of the hydrogen economy.

Changing rules mean that many utility-scale PV projects in Australia are facing long delays in achieving full generation – known as “obtaining GPS.” The consequences can be costly.