Markets

New investment in solar and wind hit a record 7.1 GW in Australia in 2022, with the Clean Energy Regulator reporting a 50% increase in large-scale projects reaching final investment decision compared to 2021. In total, 5.3 GW of new renewable energy capacity was added to the grid in 2022, according to the Regulator’s State of Renewables report.

German startup 1Komma5 has started production on its own solar modules, which are expected to hit Australian shores “imminently,” Chris Williams, CEO of its APAC arm, told pv magazine Australia. The company has just signed a polysilicon contract with fellow German company Wacker, a step towards addressing issues around unethical labour and embedded emissions in solar’s supply chain.

Dan French, executive producer of the Solar Farm Summit, told pv magazine USA that more than 500 farmers, manufacturers, and community solar developers likely attended the first US agrivoltaics conference in Chicago last week.

Chinese module manufacturer DAS Solar has marked its entry into the Australian market with the release of an all-black n-type bifacial solar panel featuring an output of 410 W to 430 W and efficiencies of up to 22%.

The European Commission says it will set up the new European Hydrogen Bank by the end of this year, with additional plans to hand out 10-year contracts in a new hydrogen auction. Meanwhile, Fortescue Future Industries is setting up a project in Kenya.

The Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) latest white paper on solar and storage manufacturing includes an interactive map. It shows that momentum has started to build for a transformational expansion of domestic solar and storage manufacturing.

Clean Energy Associates (CEA) has calculated the price premium that solar developers will swallow in return for the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) savings offered by the latest generation of high-efficiency PV panels.

The global agrivoltaics market is pegged at a 10.1% annual growth rate, according to a research note by Allied Analytics.

Rooftop solar households in regional Queensland are set to receive almost 40% more for the PV-generated electricity they send back to the grid after the state’s pricing regulator proposed an increase to the feed-in tariff.

Both the Australian Energy Regulator and Victoria’s Essential Services Commission have pointed to default electricity price rises of more than 30% for residents and small business.