Sustainability

Solar Citizens, the Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) and Queensland Conservation Council have come together to propose a $215 million initiative to the Queensland Government which would see 50 MW of solar installed across more than 50,000 social dwellings to help households save on their energy bills in these tough economic times.

Almost a third of Australians are locked behind the solar barrier, they’re renters, tenants, urban apartment-dwellers who don’t have the luxury of installing their own solar PV. However, now city-dwellers can participate in the solar transition too, by becoming members of the Haystacks Solar Garden which operates in much the same way as community garden.

South Australia’s first ten-star home was completed last month, a home that consumes twenty times less energy than the average Australian household, in part thanks to its Fimer React 2 solar hybrid system.

Australian mining giant BHP has signed a five-year power purchase agreement with CleanCo as it looks to cut emissions from its electricity use at its QLD coal mines by 50% by 2025. The agreement relies on a variety of energy sources, including gas, at least until the Western Downs Green Power Hub comes online in late 2022. Critics have described the deal as “greenwashing”.

The University of Sydney’s recently released Climate Statement makes a raft of commitments across a range of sustainability fronts, most notably a commitment to source 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and reach net zero emissions by 2030. However, Australia’s oldest university is still under pressure to divest from fossil fuels.

The Western Australian Government has launched its new Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme, a way for homes, schools, and not-for-profits with rooftop solar, energy storage, and even electric vehicles (EVs) to earn some money back from the surplus energy they export to the grid. 

The South Australian Government has announced a $9 million investment towards the transition of Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands from diesel reliance to the self-reliance of solar and energy storage. The contract is good news for one of the most continuously culturally fecund regions in the country.

Toowoomba’s Grand Central shops are currently getting a solar treatment, over 2,400 panels installed through a partnership between the QLD State Government and Yurika. QLD Energy Minister Anthony Lynham said QLD is behind renewables.

In February, non-profit EU solar panel recycling body PV Cycle announced it had collected 5,000 tons of modules in France, of which 94.7% could be recycled. A reader asked us about the remaining 5.3% and here, PV Cycle’s communications manager, Bertrand Lempkowicz, responds.

German discount supermarket chain Aldi has become the first Australian supermarket to commit to 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2021. To achieve this goal, Aldi’s longtime solar partner Epho Commercial Solar has refined its processes, managing to install 100 solar systems atop Aldi sites in 100 days.