Markets

The Boonanarring Mineral Sands Project in the North Perth Basin is set to receive a behind-the-meter installation to complement its existing grid-connected power supply. The project is the first significant investment by Climate Capital after its first-round capital raise 18-months ago.

U.S. research corporation MITRE and the new Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre will partner to take on cybersecurity threats, with an initial focus on protecting South Australia’s smart grid.

Western Australia’s biggest generator and retailer Synergy has blamed rooftop solar for bleeding red ink in the past financial year.

Chargefox, Australia’s only public ultra-rapid EV charging network, has announced the 22 locations of its network’s first phase. The target locations link Adelaide to Brisbane, via Melbourne and Sydney.

The showpiece 3.6 GW Fengning county project which will offer grid services and back-up power at the 2022 Winter Olympics is part of a 31.15 GW construction pipeline of projects, many of which are set to come into service next year.

The latest edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report reiterates that clean power is taking the lead in the world’s energy system and nuclear is not only too costly a remedy for carbon emissions but too slow to deploy.

Despite a lack of initiative for the residential battery uptake on the federal level, action on the state and territorial level has been vigorous. In the run-up to the launch of the NSW subsidy scheme, sonnen CEO of APAC Nathan Dunn is talking about the manufacturer’s experience with other subsidy schemes in Australia and what it takes for a successful program.

Australia’s chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel continues to voice his support for some modicum of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Australia’s hydrogen future, providing a lifeline to fossil fuel producers. While Finkel’s argument holds some water, it holds nowhere near enough water to produce a hydrogen economy. 

Rooftop solar penetration has reached the point where a choice needs to be made between distribution networks spending billions on new substations, poles and wires to cope – or start delivering the grid of the future so consumers are not landed with unnecessary costs, says the Australian Energy Market Commission.

The tariff for rooftop PV will be maintained at $0.0935/kWh but payments for ground-mounted and floating solar could be cut to $0.0709/kWh and $0.0769, respectively. The previous FIT scheme, according to government figures, has driven the deployment of around 5 GW of solar generation capacity.