Utility Scale PV

Southeast Asia could well become the global engine room of renewable energy expansion. Population and economic growth is expected across the three decades in which the world has to decarbonise, but the brimming bounty of renewables deployment will force developers to navigate the region’s systems. As it turns out, that could be a treacherous task.

A massive solar+storage project in the New South Wales Central West tablelands has received the tick of approval from the state’s Department of Planning and Environment with construction likely to commence on the $418 million Stubbo Solar Farm in 2022.

Indonesia will catch the eye too over the next nine years, according to Wood Mackenzie analysts, as its market grows from 300 MW to 8.5 GW.

Electricity network owner Spark Investment has announced plans to develop a 2.5 GW renewable energy hub in New South Wales as it continues to move beyond owning regulated network infrastructure towards renewable energy generation assets.

In his first public address, the newly appointed head of the Australian Energy Market Operator significantly upped the Operator’s ambitions for renewable penetrations in the grid, conveying the importance of no longer constraining what he called ‘zero cost’ renewable energy assets.

SA Water, one of the largest water utilities in Australia and most ambitious when it comes to renewable energy, has partnered with aerial solar inspection and data analysis company, Above, to monitor the performance of its 360,000+ solar panels.

Solar capacity addition in the fiscal year 2021-22 will surge, led by a strong project pipeline. Tariffs will go up amid rising module prices but will remain competitive at below INR 3/kWh (US$ 0.040/kWh).

The proposed mega-project would be the world’s largest renewable hub if realised, with a massive 50 GW of solar and wind being used to produce either 3.5 million tonnes of green hydrogen or, alternatively, 20 million tonnes of green ammonia yearly. The $100 billion Western Green Energy Hub, as its called, is being proposed by two of the same companies behind the 26 GW Asia Renewable Energy Hub, which last month had its environmental approvals rejected by the federal environment minister.

Better known for its large-scale exploits, global solar module supplier and project developer Risen Energy Australia has lodged a development application to build a 5 MW utility-scale solar PV farm at Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales.

According to Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory Co. Ltd, demand for solar PV in China could “effortlessly” surpass 100 GW in 2022, following a year of “flat” demand in 2021. It adds that a “massive overcapacity” situation in the production sector is looming. Meanwhile, the distributed solar PV market is on track for huge growth, with potential for annual demand to reach upwards of 20 GW+ from next year.