Markets & Policy

South Australia’s electricity transmission network operator ElectraNet has outlined a $2 billion-plus (USD 1.3 billion) pipeline of transmission projects as it seeks to keep pace with a “rapid” energy transformation that could lead to a doubling of the state’s electricity usage by the end of the decade.

Australian energy major AGL is pushing ahead with plans to transform its Loy Yang power station site in Victoria into a clean energy industrial hub, announcing it has signed a deal with Solar Recovery Corporation to explore the feasibility of establishing a PV panel recycling facility at the site.

Large-scale and rooftop solar installations are expected to contribute a record 286 GW of new generation capacity this year with renewable energy on course to shatter global deployment records in 2023.

Construction of eight large-scale renewable energy generation and storage projects with a combined capacity of more than 1 GW commenced in Australia in the first quarter of 2023 but the Clean Energy Council has warned the project pipeline is drying up as “headwinds” increase.

Australian redox-flow battery manufacturer Redflow will build one of the world’s largest zinc-based battery energy storage systems in the United States after inking a multi-million-dollar deal with the California Energy Commission.

Renewables investor Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has confirmed its focus is on the onshore potential of Sun Cable’s estimated $35 billion (USD 22.76 billion) Australia-Asia PowerLink project that aims to deliver up to 800 MW of renewable energy into Darwin and export solar from Australia to Singapore via a submarine transmission link.

For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, 1.7 dollars are invested in clean technologies. Five years ago, it was a one-to-one ratio, said the International Energy Agency.

Longi said today it cut the prices of its wafer products by 30% and Trina announced it will build a 25 GW monocrystalline ingot factory in the Sichuan province. Furthermore, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the Chinese PV industry produced 39.92 GW of solar cells in April, and Datang Group unveiled the results of a tender to procure 8 GW of solar panels.

A global race is underway to capture the manufacturing market for clean energy technologies. While lady lucky has certainly shone on Australia, competition is fierce, experts say.

Despite their promise, adoption rates of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) in Australia have been underwhelming. Head of Renewable Energy Finance at Plenti, Louis Edwards, says the issue stems from VPP operator’s overlooking their point of sale. “It’s too much risk the installer takes and they don’t do it,” he tells pv magazine Australia.