Markets & Policy

The PV industry in Southeast Asia has come a long way since guest author Ragna Schmidt-Haupt, partner at Everoze, reported on solar financing innovation in the region more than a decade ago. In this article, she outlines five factors for success, the newest of which has the potential to become a game changer, and not only in Southeast Asia.

The 250 MW/2,000 MWh Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project being developed in northern Queensland remains on track for energisation next year with developer Genex Power announcing that construction of the main access tunnel for the underground works is now complete.

Fledgling renewables developer Larrakia Energy has reached an agreement with Australian resources company Tivan Limited to supply up to 10% of the output from a planned 300 MW solar farm being developed in the Northern Territory.

Sandia National Laboratories and CSolPower have started researching the use of landscaping gravel as a thermal energy storage medium.

LAVO, which entered the market with its hydrogen battery in 2021, has soft launched a new Energy-as-a-Service model. Partnering with Yingli Solar, LAVO says it can install and maintain solar, battery and EV charging systems at no upfront cost to Australian households, who will then pay off the systems via a 10-year subscription.

The South Australian government is looking to fast-track the development of grid-scale battery energy storage systems across the state, launching a process that promises to provide successful projects with exemptions that could “significantly” improve project timelines.

Renewable energy investor and developer Quinbrook has launched software to allow customers to trace both the source and carbon-intensity of their electricity in real-time. The energy-tracing platform comes at an important moment, just as Australia’s government is deciding whether to include time-stamped and granular source information in its formal certificate schemes.

The Brookfield-led consortium looking to acquire Origin Energy has come back with a “best and final” bid that values the company at approximately $20 billion (USD 12.85 billion). The offer comes just days after the energy utility’s largest shareholder rejected the previous bid.

Chinese solar panel manufacturer AIKO unveiled its solar cell technology at Melbourne’s All-Energy event last week ahead of an impending entry into the Australian market.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.