Markets

Origin Energy’s announcement that it is accelerating the closure of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station has triggered calls for the Federal Government to develop a nationally co-ordinated approach to manage the retirement of fossil fuel generation as well as support investment in new clean energy generation.

One of Australia’s largest residential and commercial solar PV retailers and installers has announced it will exit the market, declaring low margins and once-in-a-generation disruptions to the supply chain brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic have taken a toll.

British analyst GlobalData has predicted residential and commercial rooftop panels will not return to a declining price trend until next year, with post-Covid logistics headaches the cause, rather than a polysilicon shortage.

Renewable energy investors have again shattered the New South Wales Government’s expectations with more than 80 clean energy projects representing more than $100 billion of potential investment registering for the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone.

Australia’s first national battery recycling scheme, B-cycle, launched today giving Australians the opportunity to drop their spent household batteries at a collections bins in supermarkets, stores and community clubs across the country. 

Australia has hit a historic milestone, reaching 25GW of installed solar. As the Australian PV Institute noted on Monday, that’s more solar per capita than anywhere else in the world.

U.S. company Verdagy has secured a US$25 million (AU$35 million) investment for its new electrolyser technology, which provides hydrogen fuel for heavy industrial applications. The membrane-based technology uses large active area cells, high current densities, and broad operating ranges to deliver hydrogen at scale.

Renewable energy production reached record highs in Australia in 2021 with new data from the Climate Council revealing clean technologies including rooftop solar and utility scale PV supplied five times more power into the nation’s largest electricity grid than gas.

The past 12 months have been a turbulent time for PV manufacturing. Rapid and impressive developments in technology have been accompanied by price increases up and down the supply chain, and energy shortages weighed on production in the second half of the year. Chinese n-type module manufacturer Jolywood is now pressing ahead with ambitious expansion plans despite the disruption. pv magazine publisher Eckhart K. Gouras and editor Mark Hutchins recently caught up with Cathy Huang, European sales director at Jolywood, to discuss the company’s plans to bring n-type TOPCon technology into mainstream production.

Australian energy major AGL has fast-tracked the closures of its two biggest coal-fired power plants by several years as it pushes ahead with plans to demerge in response to the ongoing market shift towards renewable sources of electricity.