Markets & Policy

Chinese PV heavyweight Canadian Solar has announced an offtake deal for its Gunnedah solar project in New South Wales signed with e-commerce giant Amazon.

Sydney’s City of Canterbury-Bankstown has opened an expression of interest period as it seeks the development of a single contract urban solar farm to boost its growing solar uptake.

A report by Norwegian energy consultant DNV GL has considered the opportunity for long-term energy storage to play a role in balancing annual supply and demand fluctuations in a renewables-led grid. Using 58 years of Dutch weather and energy consumption data, the study found long-term solutions such as green hydrogen could make a valuable contribution – but perhaps not as much as some analysts believe.

A feasibility study will explore a new option for producing and using renewable hydrogen with the help of funding provided by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). If the study supports the business case, the project run by Stanwell Corporation will deliver the largest hydrogen electrolysis plant in Australia.

New research commissioned by Atlassian suggests a burgeoning Social Contract whereby employees want business to take more of a leadership role on societal issues to make up for perceived government lack. The research feels the pulse of the Australian workforce but also raises some interesting questions.

In its world-first application, hydrogen energy storage technology developed at UNSW Sydney will be installed in the regional town Manilla, which is set for one of Australia’s major community-owned solar farms. The storage deployment will be backed by an NSW government grant as part of a funding round that has awarded seven solar and battery community projects across the state.

The South Australian Government’s subsidy under the $100 million Home Battery Scheme will have its first planned reduction in five weeks’ time.

A Japanese consortium has started producing solar-powered ‘urban furniture’. The result is a solar-plus-battery bench with cooling elements and vaporizers.

A consortium of partners led by the University of Technology Sydney has been successful in its bid for funding of a Cooperative Research Centre dedicated to enhancing energy consumers’ access to and efficient deployment of distributed renewable resources — primarily rooftop PV.

The Federal Government Government on Friday told participants in the research engine, known as the Energy Transition Hub, that funding of the five-year initiative had been curtailed.