Markets

The addition of 521 MW between April to June was India’s highest ever rooftop solar capacity installed in a single quarter.

The federal government has announced it will extend its prospective national network of clean hydrogen hubs to each of Australia’s states. The move was welcomed by a number of industry bodies, though some say the program doesn’t go far enough with government spending still lagging our European counterparts.

Power and water are a classic utility couple. SA Water has switched up the relationship with another solar plant energised in its massive solar rollout that is set to save on both costs and carbon.

Rising efficiencies and the plummeting cost of solar modules over the past few years, recent months notwithstanding, are leading innovators toward ideas that may look unusual in the current tracker-dominated world of large-scale solar parks. Advocates of the new approaches argue that they leave traditional models looking decidedly flat by comparison.

Price increases, supply chain disruptions, and a series of trade risks are threatening the U.S.’s ability to decarbonise the grid, warned SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper.

Global software as a service (SaaS) company, WePower, has today launched its new ‘Incite’ solution, allowing businesses to track and certify their operation’s sustainability through blockchain-enabled technology, ultimately combatting greenwashing. Australia is first cab off the rank for the Lithuanian-headquartered company’s new product suite.

The US$1.28 billion (AU$1.7 billion) plan includes a 3.1 GW production capacity expansion in South Korea, where the company’s solar module capacity will reach 7.6 GW by 2025.

The Clean Energy Regulator has issued its second Quarterly Carbon Market Report for the year. Despite Covid and justified investor caution on big renewable projects, indicators from small- and large-scale energy certificate accounting show steady growth.

Polysilicon capacity is unable to catch up with rapid capacity expansion in the mid and downstream segments, writes Corrine Lin, chief analyst for PV InfoLink. New polysilicon capacity requires big capex investment and a lead time of more than two years to complete construction and reach full operation. With unbalanced capacity between the upstream and downstream segments, polysilicon prices have been rising since the second half of 2020, with prices for mono-grade polysilicon surpassing CNY 200/kg (US$27.40) in June 2021, up more than 250% year on year.

The highly polarised debate regarding renewable energy and action on climate change that has too long been a feature of the Australian political landscape could change, and change quickly, says Saul Griffith. The entrepreneur, scientist, and energy analyst is adding author to his job description next month with the release of his book “Electrify”, and he’s betting on a rapid transformation of the discussion within Australia as the advantages of “electrifying everything” become clear.