Policy

The Australian government is taking the next steps to roll out 400 batteries in neighbourhoods across the country as part of the $200 million (USD 134 million) Community Batteries for Household Solar program.

Des Hang on the three main doubts that still linger around Australia’s burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) industry.

Two of Australia’s key mechanisms for delivering the country to its climate commitments went into review in 2022 with the change of federal government. Australia’s carbon credit scheme and its Safeguard Mechanism, which aims to drive down emissions from Australia’s biggest polluters, are both inextricably linked and infuriatingly opaque. With those reviews to be handed down shortly, pv magazine Australia offers a brief recap on where we’re at.

Ranking the world’s largest producers of solar energy based on the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2022.

Another of the coordinated clean energy zones planned for New South Wales is a step closer to being developed with the state government announcing the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone, which has already attracted expressions of interest for almost 40 GW of generation, has been formally declared.

While the efficiency of solar cells will always be important, scaling innovation in sustainable cell technology and solar deployment, is the new game in town. With hydrogen exports and production of green metals in its sights, Australia has some breakthrough tech coming down the pike, as pv magazine Australia’s Natalie Filatoff reports.

Australia’s national science agency has urged the government to develop a domestic solar manufacturing industry with a new report warning that the current highly concentrated international silicon and PV cell supply chains pose real risks to the nation’s energy security and independence.

Australia’s energy ministers have unanimously agreed to establish a capacity investment mechanism that they anticipate will unleash at least $10 billion (USD 6.7 billion) worth of investment and at least 6 GW of renewable energy generation and storage to stabilise the grid as the nation’s ageing coal-fired power plants exit the energy market.

The Australian government will commence talks with investors and industry this week on the formation of a $15 billion (USD 10.2 billion) national reconstruction fund that aims to boost investment in onshore manufacturing, including the production of solar panels, batteries and hydrogen electrolysers, and components for wind turbines.

On the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflict and allegations of forced labour in sectors critical to the renewable energy transition, awareness of supply chain insecurity has rarely been higher. Seeking to strike while the iron is hot, the Clean Energy Council and law firm Norton Rose Fulbright have published a white paper arguing that Australia’s own renewable energy supply chains could “benefit significantly” by a more concerted effort to address modern slavery.