Markets & Policy

The New South Wales government has launched its ambitious pumped hydro roadmap designed to back the rising level of wind and solar in the energy mix. Meanwhile, the board of government-owned energy provider Snowy Hydro has given the green light to its landmark $4 billion pumped hydro expansion project, Snowy 2.0.

Perovskite solar cell specialist Greatcell Solar has failed to secured refinancing for its activities and has been forced to appoint administrators. The company lays the blame at the federal government’s door, pointing to the R&D rebate changes and policy settings that are unsupportive of renewable energy investment as the reasons behind its downfall.

The federal government has launched a strategy seeking investment to unlock Australia’s potential in lithium-ion battery manufacturing. Noting that the nation’s mineral reserves cover 90% of the elements required in li-ion battery chemistry, the new Austrade report underlines that Australia is well-positioned to become a world leader in this fast growing market.

PXiSE will deploy its Active Control Technology to manage up to 50,000 distributed energy resources across Horizon Power’s 2.3 million square kilometre network, which it says will enable higher levels of renewable energy.

The Canadian battery manufacturer says its order book has crossed the $1.5 million mark in less than two weeks after joining the South Australian Home Battery Scheme.

The growth in global energy demand is surging ahead of decarbonisation, concludes a new report released Thursday, but the opportunity is promising for solar PV to grow into the space and help reduce the emissions burden.

Around 40 residential properties across the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia, will be able to trade solar power using a blockchain-enabled platform. The trial is even open for residents who do not have solar PV on their rooftops.

The California Building Standards Commission has approved the requirement that new homes integrate rooftop solar. This is expected to not only give a major boost to the state’s solar market, but to drive down costs.

Does renewable electricity raise or lower electricity prices? There is more to this question than meets the eye: are prices lower before or after renewable subsidies are recovered, how has variability been accounted for, how have changes in network costs been accounted for, and so on and on. Bruce Mountain, the Director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre and Steven Percy, a research fellow at Victoria University set out new findings.

A new report analyzing the world’s largest lithium-ion battery’s performance in the first year of operation shows the Hornsdale Power Reserve has delivered on high expectations of its performance and market impact. It has helped stabilize the grid, avoid outages and reduce system costs, as well as triggered a surge in uptake of similar fast response systems across Australia.