Sustainability

Proposed changes to one of Australia’s most consequential emissions reductions policies, the Safeguard Mechanism, have been announced by Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen. “This is the biggest climate policy that they nation will be debating this year so it’s very important it’s done right,” Glenn Walker, head of advocacy and strategy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, told pv magazine Australia.

The New South Wales government aims to “turbocharge” the state’s transition from coal and gas to a renewables-based grid with a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% in little more than a decade on the pathway to net zero emissions by 2050.

A the newly operational electric bus depot in Sydney’s west illustrates the infrastructure required to run an electric bus fleet, but also demonstrates that an electric bus fleet requires less charging than originally forecast.

Australia has declared its first offshore wind farm zone off the southern coast of Victoria and has also awarded Major Project Status to the 2.2 GW Star of the South project being developed off the Gippsland coast.

A reduction of silver consumption in PV production is required on the way to terawatt scale. Given this, the time may have come for the commercialisation of new copper plating technologies – doing away with the need for silver in cell metallisation altogether. However, the history of plating technology is littered with cautionary tales.

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

ANU’s Dr Bjorn Sturmberg has launched his book Amy’s Balancing Act, a fable about Australia’s energy transition. While, of course, for kids, Dr Sturmberg’s book gestures towards fundamental questions for the industry itself. The energy transition is not just a technological shift, he tells pv magazine Australia, but systematic and emotional one – facets often overlooked within the industry.

Boundary Power, a union between West Australian standalone power system (SAPS) leader Horizon Power and Ampcontrol, has installed its first off-grid system for an unnamed east coast utility in regional New South Wales.

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.

A free version of SunSPOT, a tool for tailored guidance on the ideal solar and battery set ups, has now been launched. Developed by APVI and UNSW, the online tool allows users to calculate size, cost and potential savings from household renewable systems and is the only such platform offering this information without a sales motive.