Finance

Defying election predictions, the right-wing Liberal-National coalition celebrated a “miracle” victory on Saturday evening. But, the Australian solar sector has little reason to rejoice.

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.

One of the hotly contested issues in the run-up to the Saturday federal election is whether a proactive response to climate change is more expensive than doing nothing. The Australia Institute has examined 22 reports from academics, government agencies and consultants modeling higher emissions reductions by 2030 and found that none of them shows action on climate change is ‘economy wrecking’. Counting the costs of the major parties’ climate change policies, UNSW finds that impacts of inaction on climate change for both Australia’s economy and jobs outweigh the costs of reducing emissions.

As the federal election campaign slowly grinds to a halt, one thing is indisputable: climate change has emerged as the make or break issue in this year’s election. The main parties have come up with a wide range of policies, but some are more supportive of the green energy sector than the others.

With the annual cost of energy per bed across the aged care sector on the rise, C&I PV and energy efficiency specialist Verdia says that a major energy transformation is underway across Australia.

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.

A new $200 million partnership with Bank Australia has boosted the capability of Sustainable Melbourne Fund to help all Australian commercial and agricultural enterprises become more sustainable. For many businesses, reducing electricity costs and emissions through solar PV installation has been the first project on their list.

The Australian government’s green bank continues to invest in energy efficient homes for low income families with a new funding granted for solar and battery-powered dwellings in regional New South Wales.

Echoing a growing appetite for corporate renewable power purchase agreements in Australia, Ascham School has become the first school in New South Wales to ink a long-term deal with commercial electricity retailer Flow Power.

Only a month after it signed up to the global initiative RE100, Bank Australia has announced it made the switch to 100% renewable electricity one year ahead of its 2020 target.