Manufacturing

The federal government has launched a strategy seeking investment to unlock Australia’s potential in lithium-ion battery manufacturing. Noting that the nation’s mineral reserves cover 90% of the elements required in li-ion battery chemistry, the new Austrade report underlines that Australia is well-positioned to become a world leader in this fast growing market.

High levels of rooftop PV penetration, an informed public, small seasonal irradiance variation, and market structures that favour maximising solar self consumption: Australia is ideally situated to see the adoption of the smart home. So says SolarEdge founder Lior Handelsman who spells out how the company is expanding its Aussie operations and offering a growing range of solutions to put rooftop PV to its best use.

Hanergy and Environmental Technology Solutions (ETS) will partner to introduce the HanWall BIPV solution to Australia. The companies have signed a cooperation agreement, which targets 4.3 MW of HanWall installations.

The South Korean PV manufacturer saw sales increase slightly in the last quarter. Net losses, however, more than quadrupled compared to the previous period.

That would mean a market increase of around 25% on this year. Demand is predicted to become particularly strong in the second half of the year. Australia is forecast to see lower demand than usual in the first quarter, but also be among 16 nations worldwide that will add over 1 GW of solar capacity in 2019.

EPC contractor Decmil Group has selected Nextracker’s NX Horizon solar trackers for the 255 MW Sunraysia Solar Farm, one of Australia’s largest solar farms located in New South Wales.

The first shipments of Jinko’s new Cheetah module series will commence in January 2019. The module uses larger monocrystalline wafer, PERC cell technology and is available in either a half or full-cell format.

The German energy storage provider has begun assembling batteries at the former Holden site at Elizabeth in Adelaide’s north. The company has already hired 50 full-time employees.

German inverter giant SMA has reported huge market share in the Australian marketplace, announcing 1.8 GW of PV power plant installations in 2018. The company’s dominance of the large scale segment is such that it claims “almost all utility scale PV power plant projects in Australia rely on the SMA Medium Voltage Power Station.”

SunPower has reported that the enhanced power density and 25-year warranty for its shingled P-Series modules was a key factor behind its selection by Belectric as the module supplier to the 349 MW Limondale utility scale solar project. Chris O’Brien, SunPower’s Australian Managing Director reports “strong bookings” for the new module concept.