Markets

WoodMac analysts say the amount of new battery manufacturing capacity added in the nation this year could fall by as much as 10% because of the outbreak. With Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory affected by the extended new-year-holiday shutdown, the analyst warned of potential supply shortages for Australia and the U.S. and U.K.

Against the backdrop of extreme heat, generator, and transmission line outages and intense bushfires, revenues for grid-scale batteries on the National Electricity Market (NEM) have been trending upwards.

Grid-scale wind and solar output reached new highs in Q4 last year pushing power prices to a three-year low despite a number of coal-fired generator outages. As Australia’s big PV fleet continues to expand, the National Electricity Market saw the highest output of big PV on record, but also record curtailment.

Synergy and Western Power’s PowerBank trial has reached another milestone with the integration of a utility-scale community battery into Perth’s major metropolitan network.

The California-based microinverter maker has partnered with installer Solaray and wholesaler AC Solar Warehouse in Australia to intensify the calls against rooftop DC isolators, stressing they should be replaced with safer equipment now available in the market.

Construction has begun on Royal Dutch Shell’s 120 MW solar farm which will generate clean energy for QGC’s natural gas processing plants near Wandoan in South West Queensland. The project is the oil major’s first global investment in an industrial-scale solar farm.

West Australian peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading pioneer Power Ledger has won a lucrative contract with Alperia SpA, one of Italy’s largest renewable electricity utilities.

Canadian Solar and Lightsource BP have signed a multi-year 1.2 GW module supply agreement that will see both monofacial and bifacial modules installed in Lightsource BP’s Australian and U.S. solar projects.

The coronavirus outbreak in China could raise solar module prices in the near term as manufacturers have already begun experiencing wafer and solar glass shortages. Production rates are also being affected by an extended new year holiday introduced by the authorities as a measure to deal with the virus, and the requirement workers from infected areas quarantine themselves for two weeks.

Neoen’s 400 MW Culcairn Solar Farm and energy storage facility in NSW has now entered the open exhibition stage and released its EIS. The French company, Australia’s top independent renewable energy producer, hopes to commence construction mid-2020.