Solar steals the show at Melbourne Design Week
An independent exhibition brought to Melbourne Design Week by a group of 15 of the city’s top architectural firms demonstrates the blueprint for Melbourne’s transformation to “A New Normal”. “A New Normal” is a plan to transform Greater Melbourne into a self-sufficient city by 2030.
Solar earns the thirst, you drink the beer – new platform lets you trade PV for VB
Iconic Australian beer Victoria Bitter has partnered with Diamond Energy and Power Ledger to develop Solar Exchange, a blockchain-enabled platform that allows residential PV owners to exchange their excess solar for cases of beer. This is not an April Fool’s prank, miracles do happen, stay calm and exchange your excess solar for slabs!
Baywa’s ‘fruitvoltaic’ project to bear fruit – 23 tons a year, in fact
A 1.2 MWp installation featuring more than 4,500 solar panels has sheltered a berry crop from high temperatures and damp to strengthen the claims made by agrivoltaics companies that their systems can offer climate change mitigation as well as clean energy.
Solar still largely underestimated
Two recent studies have separately shown that many scenarios assessing global decarbonization pathways are still predicting too-low future PV capacity and too-high LCOEs for the solar technology. The researchers analyzed scenarios provided by scientific researchers, government bodies and non-governmental organizations, including the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the European Commission, the Indian government, the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), among others.
Australian cleantech startup competition draws $50,000 grant for winner
A $50,000 development grant will be awarded to the winner of this year’s national ClimateLaunchpad competition, which aims launch early-stage cleantech startups into the market.
Regulator pivots approach, unveiling new mechanisms to crackdown on accredited installer misconduct
The Clean Energy Regulator told pv magazine Australia it’s focussing its attention on rooting out misbehaving installers, armed with new automated data analytics models and stronger bonds with industry co-regulators like the Clean Energy Council.
Clean energy technologies can provide grid security for less, study finds
New research shows renewables plus batteries would be able to offer Australia’s electricity grid the same energy security as coal and gas generators, leading to calls for regulatory changes.
Energy giant AGL reveals controversial partition plans
AGL Energy has been remarkably busy in recent months trying to make itself look like a giant ship on the turn in the energy transition and not the Ever Given cargo ship stuck in the old sands of time. Now, AGL has announced plans to partition itself into two separate businesses which it says will provide them with the freedom to pursue their own agendas, but not everyone is convinced.
AGL to leverage floating solar at Loy Yang for hydrogen project
At AGL Energy’s Investor Day the energy giant revealed plans for a potential floating solar project on the site of its Loy Yang power station in Victoria. AGL, which is currently in the application process for a 200 MW battery at the site and is already producing brown hydrogen for export to Japan, is looking to leverage unused space to reduce emissions.
JinkoSolar unwraps 415 W PV panel for rooftop applications
The new, Tiger Pro 54HC panel is based on a 182mm, 54-cell design and exhibits an efficiency of up to 21.3%. The manufacturer claims the new product is particularly suitable for residential projects in high snow or high wind load areas.
