Utility Scale PV

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) says it has not suspended solar and wind project commissioning, though it noted the schedules for some projects have been adjusted because of the ongoing energy supply crisis.

Longi Solar outlines its high-temperature mitigation logic in designing the lower current, high-wattage Hi-MO5 solar panel series.

In many parts of the world, project developers and owners are increasingly looking to floating PV as the next long-term growth market in utility-scale solar. Gian Schelling, global business development manager for Hitachi Energy, says that PV-on-water can rise above the current challenges it faces by drawing on the lessons learned from offshore wind development.

The Federal Energy Minister insists the Australian Energy Market Operator’s market intervention demonstrates that it is “more important than ever to manage the transition and get more energy into the system and more storage and transmission”.

The Tasmanian government is calling for registrations of interest from developers of new large-scale renewable generators and energy storage projects, and existing and proposed energy intensive load projects to participate in shaping the state’s first renewable energy zone.

Australian solar thermal specialist Vast Solar has partnered with storage development company 1414 Degrees to revive the long-awaited Aurora Solar Energy Project – which is to comprise a combination of solar thermal, PV, and battery energy storage technologies – at Port Augusta in South Australia.

Western Australian developer Frontier Energy, a relatively new player in the renewable space, says preliminary findings from its green hydrogen study indicate it could be producing “significantly earlier than originally anticipated” from its Bristol Springs Solar Project, to be located south of Perth.

Oil and gas giant BP will take a 40.5% stake in the 26 GW Asian Renewable Energy Hub megaproject proposed for Western Australia’s north coast.

Selected projects will be awarded a fixed rate under a 20-year contract under the country’s renewable energy certificate (REC) scheme and will sell electricity to local power distributors.

Australia’s uptake of rooftop solar is one of the highest in the world with more than 30% of free-standing households across the nation now fitted with a PV system but the Clean Energy Regulator has revealed a “steep decline” in the number of installations in early 2022 with deteriorating economics playing a major part.