Policy

230 Northern Territory businesses have already received their vouchers for Australia’s most generous energy storage subsidity, the NT’s Home and Business Battery Scheme. The scheme, which is still open for applications until November 30, offers grants of $6,00 to homeowners and business owners to install solar and battery storage, or complement an existing solar system with a battery.

In a new paper published in the journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, renowned PV scientist Pierre Verlinden examines the solar industry’s trajectory towards the 70 TW of installed capacity that will be needed by 2050, as the best choice for meeting climate targets set out in the 2015 Paris agreement. Silver consumption and recycling, according to Verlinden, will be the biggest challenges in the years to come, as well as ensuring balanced growth and avoiding a major installation rush in the years close to 2050.

Australia’s largest free-range chicken farm switched on one of the biggest solar plus energy storage system’s of any commercial farm in the country this week. With 1.4 MW of rooftop solar combining with 2.28 MWh of energy storage via 5 Tesla lithium-ion batteries, the farm is excited to save enormous amounts on its energy bill and its emissions. Winner, winner!

The centralised nature of policymaking in Beijing would enable component standardisation to ease the transition from EV to stationary energy storage use, according to Greenpeace East Asia.

The Clean Energy Regulator is both watchdog — assessing applications for Small-scale Technology Certificates, Large-scale Generation Certificates and Emissions Reduction Fund credits — and oracle, weaving data to provide an overview of Australia’s energy supply and demand and the performance of renewable resources. A recent transformation of its digital capabilities benefits consumers and the renewable energy industry.

Earlier this year, Singapore surpassed its 2020 target for 350 MW of installed PV, and has set itself a more ambitious goal of 2 GW for the coming decade. pv magazine recently spoke with Thomas Reindl, deputy CEO of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) – and also the lead author of a 2020 update to the institute’s PV Roadmap for Singapore report – to catch up on the latest developments in the city-state’s PV market.

Dozens of elected local government representatives from around Australia are the latest to reject the Federal Government’s gas-led economic recovery plan, committing instead to a “sustainable” economic future.

One of Australia’s tourist hot spots could soon be home to a major solar farm with the Gold Coast City Council giving a 33 MW project the green light.

Australia is increasingly at risk of becoming “internationally isolated” with Prime Minister Scott Morrison declaring his government will not be dictated to by other countries on energy and climate policies.

As Green Finance begins to be seen more and more as global best practice the energy transition can only accelerate. This week, two stories attest to the growing acceptance of green finance by major financial institutions – ANZ Bank has pledged to extricate itself from thermal coal by 2030 and pursue more sustainable policies and Mike Cannon-Brookes supported startup Brighte announces Australia’s first 100% green asset-backed securitisation, $190 million in debt financing for Australians looking to uptake solar and battery storage in their home.