Markets

GTM Research and SEIA’s final report on the solar market in 2017 shows both the struggle of the residential solar market, as well as a larger than anticipated fall in utility-scale volumes, leading to a 30% contraction overall.

SA Liberal leader, and potential premier, Steven Marshall has been ordered to print a retraction for his campaign claim that the Liberal Energy Solution will save South Australians more than $300 per household.

The Grattan Institute has warned that surging small-scale solar system installations are depressing midday wholesale electricity prices – giving reason for subsidies to be cut and putting downward pressure of residential PV FITs. Green Energy Markets’ Tristan Edis says the level of solar generation is not yet a problem, and that simple solutions to absorb solar energy during the day are at hand.

Electricity retailer Powershop is dropping the rates for its Victorian customers by 5%, as it adds “a diverse set of renewable generation” to its portfolio. Powershop is the retail arms of New Zealand-based utility Meridian Energy.

Australia’s large-scale and rooftop solar PV sectors now employ over 10,000 people. The findings were published today in Green Energy Market’s Renewable Energy Index for January 2018.

The next decade will see the Asia-Pacific region cement its position as the global leader for the deployment of non-hydro renewables, with over 500 GW of new capacity being added. BMI Research published the finding last week as a part of its Global Renewables Forecast.

The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are on track to make solar and other renewables account for 23% of the region’s total primary energy supply (TPES) by 2025, but governments will need to create better policy and investment frameworks to make it happen, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Australia is on the cusp of a residential battery storage boom. The Climate Council published the forecast last week in its Fully Charged: Renewables and Storage Powering Australia report. BNEF confirms with pv magazine Australia that as a result of the rapid growth, Australia is alongside Germany as the fastest growing market for residential battery storage.

Onshore wind and solar PV will go head-to-head for the first time in a new 200 MW tender in Germany. Bids for solar PV ground-mounted projects and onshore wind farms can be submitted to the Federal Network Agency by April 3.

There is absolutely no doubting that the installation rate of solar PV, both rooftop and utility scale, is growing extremely quickly. An exciting development, yeah, but installed capacity isn’t likely to double in 2018.