Markets & Policy

Province Resources, a Perth-based company developing an 8 GW green hydrogen project in the state’s Gascoyne region, has had additional licences granted by the WA government covering an area over 600,000 hectares, including over 864 hectares of the seabed near Carnarvon needed for export.

Chinese module maker BYD is producing a new bifacial monocrystalline panel at its manufacturing facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The module has a power output of up to 355 W and a conversion efficiency of 16.33%.

Neoen’s Capital battery project in Canberra is facing significant delays due to connection compliance testing, with the company flagging potential for it to pursue damages from EPC contractor Doosan GridTech. The completed battery was expected to be operational in early 2023.

A council on the NSW South Coast is prioritising the reuse of solar panels, partnering with a volunteer community group to either gift or resell the panels locally.

Genex Power, owner of the 50 MW / 100 MWh Bouldercombe battery which caught fire in Queensland on September 26, says its preliminary root cause analysis found the fault occurred at the grid side of the Tesla Megapack battery unit.

Fronius, Australia’s most popular inverter brand, has lost almost 35% of its marketshare this year due to major stock shortages. After a year of supply issues, Fronius Australia’s managing director told pv magazine that its backlog, including for the GEN24 Primo 10, should be cleared by the end of November.

Italian energy group Enel says it is scrapping its plans to build a hydrogen project in La Spezia, Italy, despite €13.72 million ($22.66 million) in European subsidies, while Toyota has introduced its new Crown Sedan fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) in Japan.

New South Wales network operator Ausgrid has switched on the second community battery rolled out under an Australian government national funding program that has sparked an “overwhelming” response with more than $3.5 billion (USD 2.28 billion) of projects seeking funding.

The Queensland government’s proposed 2 GW/48 GWh Borumba pumped hydro energy storage project continues to power ahead with a call for expressions of interest for underground works.

It is time to call out the problems of Net Zero, Enosi’s Grant McDowell argues. To reach a fully renewable grid, companies and institutions instead must embrace what he calls True Zero.