Utility Scale PV

At the Clean Energy Council Large-scale Solar Forum yesterday, principal sponsor Longi launched its new Hi-MO 4 range of solar panels in Australia and spoke with pv magazine about its intention to better serve the local industry by opening a fully fledged sales and service office in Australia.

The Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority is seeking public submissions on the massive Asian Renewable Energy Hub proposed for the Pilbara region.

American EPC Signal Energy has entered the Australian large scale solar marketplace, opening regional headquarters in Sydney. The U.S. firm, which has already won two construction contracts for major solar projects in western NSW, is a long term Canadian Solar project partner.

Solar-plus-storage could be competitive against gas peaking power plants in Australia within the next five years, as the average solar-plus-storage LCOE across the Asia-Pacific region is set to fall from $133/MWh this year to $101/MWh by 2023, according to a newly released research report.

The first solar project in the 1 GW dispatchable renewable energy program launched by UK steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta has received a development approval from the South Australian government.

The Queensland government has signed into law a controversial regulation for solar farms larger than 100 kW, which requires mounting, locating, fixing and removal of PV panels at solar farms to only be undertaken by licensed electricians. The move comes despite warnings that the new rules will put hundreds of local jobs at risk and could bring some projects to a standstill.

A large-scale ESCO Pacific-championed solar project has received NSW Government approval, bringing to 26 the number of solar farms given the green light by the State since 2017. That’s another 100 MW towards the NSW goal of more than 10 GW of renewables by 2021.

South Australia’s coal-fired electricity industry is in its final chapter with the sale of the 65-year-old Port Augusta power station site expected to reach settlement by the end of the month.

With the submission of its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) report to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DP&E) this month, the massive Wollar Solar Farm project in NSW is edging closer to becoming a reality. 

The latest figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) show that solar continues to eat into the share once firmly held by coal on the back of a dramatic increase in installations over the past 12 months. The trend was backed by energy storage facilities which continued to gain foothold as providers of frequency control and ancillary services, lowering overall costs in the first quarter of 2019.