Legal

In September 2021, not long after a fire at the Victorian Big Battery made international headlines, Neoen’s original “Big Battery” – the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia – was sued by the Australian Energy Regulator for failing to provide all of the frequency control ancillary services it had agreed to offer. The case is now before Australia’s Federal Court, where the judgement could set an important precedent for network operations in Australia, as well as the transition to large-scale batteries.

On Friday, major changes to the regulatory framework surrounding the small-scale renewable energy scheme (SRES), effectively the country’s solar rebate program, will come into force. Pv magazine Australia spoke to Smart Energy Council CEO John Grimes about the changes and how they will impact Australia’s solar players.

A standing committee has blocked federal energy minister Angus Taylor’s longstanding attempts to allow ARENA to fund fossil fuel projects, finding it illegal. The ruling came on the same day new analysis found the Morrison government’s fossil fuel subsidies increased 12% in FY22, costing taxpayers a total of $10.5 billion.

We are living through uncertain times. Despite the urgency of the energy transition and the substantial and growing opportunities for new utility-scale (and larger) renewables developments, risks arise for owners, developers, lenders, investors and contractors.

The deployment of standalone power systems in the National Electricity Market is expected to accelerate after the Australian Energy Market Commission this week published new rules allowing distributors to install the renewables-based technology in the five market jurisdictions.

A Tasmanian solar installer has been prosecuted for providing a false signature on a certificate form after being investigated by the Clean Energy Regulator. The Regulator has this month also suspended the registration of two solar agents, one permanently.

Shipping containers storing roughly 100MW of LONGi solar modules have been released, reports ROTH Capital Partners in an industry note, while Trina has had the vast majority of its detained product released, if not all of it entirely.

In 2002, the Fraunhofer ISE patented the HERIC circuit for highly efficient inverters. Since then, the institute says, it has recorded out-of-court settlements in seven patent infringement lawsuits against companies from China, Taiwan and Germany.

Australia’s largest petroleum company Ampol has revealed its ambition to expand into the nation’s energy market by submitting an application to the industry regulator for licences to retail electricity and gas in Australia.

Victorian network utility AusNet Services appears certain to be entirely foreign owned after shareholders overwhelmingly approved the sale of the company to a consortium led by Canadian asset management group Brookfield.