Utility Scale PV

The Victorian electricity distribution business has proposed network enhancements that aim to drive down power prices starting from 2021. It hopes to boost the safety and flexibility of the grid through the measures, which include network improvements to accommodate more solar and battery storage installations.

The amount and nature of desert dust determines whether daily cleaning of solar modules is a favorable option. However, frequent and water-intensive cleaning, as well as the amount of labor required, can be costly in desert installations. But the ingenuity of automation is on its way to help.

Shell Australia has “well advanced” plans for a 120 MW utility scale PV array to supply its QGC onshore gas operations in northern Queensland. The announcement was made Shell Australia Chairman Zoe Yujnovich during a speech today, in which she pointed to an Australian “energy transition” in which “electrons will play a bigger role”.

In the aftermath of January’s blackouts in Victoria and South Australia, public policy think thank Grattan Institute underlines that blaming renewable energy for supply failures is wrong and dangerous. The new report flies in the face of repeated claims by the Coalition government that renewables are undermining the reliability of electricity system.

The 240 MW Prairie Solar Farm in Victoria has moved forward with a planning permission and the 315 MW Clarke Creek Solar Farm in Queensland has received a material change of use permit.

The Central Goldfields Shire Council has given its tick of approval for the construction of the Carisbrook Solar Farm, proposed by Germany’s ib vogt.

Elliott Green Power (EGP) has completed the construction and grid connection of its 95 MW Susan River Solar Farm in South East Queensland. The utility scale array is part of a three-project, 300 MW portfolio EGP is developing in Queensland and New South Wales.

Diversifying its gas-focused portfolio Down Under, the Italian oil group has acquired the Northern Territory’s largest solar project – the 33.7 MWp Katherine Solar Farm.

The first sod has been turned on a $30 million smart microgrid which is to power Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds Campus. The project, featuring a 7 MW solar farm and a 1 MW battery, is delivered in partnership with AusNet Services and its subsidiary Mondo with the goal to provide an integrated research and education platform, and contribute to the university’s sustainability goals.

After it launched construction on its first solar project in Australia last month, Indonesia’s Terregra Renewables is all set to break ground on another 5 MW solar farm in South Australia.