Markets & Policy

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.

ACT gas network operator Evoenergy and the Canberra Institute of Technology have partnered to build a first of its kind hydrogen test facility at CIT Fyshwick. The station will test up to 100% hydrogen in deployments in which natural gas is currently used.

After around 1200 applications were lodged for the original 1500 packages in as little as two weeks, the Queensland government has introduced an additional 1000 battery grant packages to help households and small businesses cut their energy bills with the help of solar and storage.

All state and national approvals have been secured for a massive wind project in central Queensland. The 800 MW wind farm is part of a major renewable energy hybrid project, which is planned to include up to 400 MW of solar and a battery energy storage facility that have already secured state approval.

The number of Australian homes with solar PV systems installed on their rooftops has passed a two million milestone, show Clean Energy Regulator data. With an average of six panels installed a minute, the uptake shows no signs of subsiding.

That would mean a market increase of around 25% on this year. Demand is predicted to become particularly strong in the second half of the year. Australia is forecast to see lower demand than usual in the first quarter, but also be among 16 nations worldwide that will add over 1 GW of solar capacity in 2019.