Grids & Integration

Power prices are set to go up again even though renewables now account for 40% of the electricity in Australia’s main grid – close to quadruple the clean power we had just 15 years ago. How can that be, given renewables are the cheapest form of newly built power generation?

Scientists utilising data gathered at the Northern Territory’s Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre have created a novel probabilistic model for five-minutes ahead PV power forecasting. The method combines a convolutional neural network with bidirectional long short-term memory, attention mechanism, and natural gradient boosting.

New South Wales distribution network operator Endeavour Energy will install four community batteries on council land in the Wollongong region, with a further 13 suitable sites identified across the Illawarra.

China-headquartered energy storage solutions company and business unit of Trinasolar, Trina Storage has unveiled its next-generation Elementa 2 Pro 5 MWh energy storage system to the Australian market.

More than 300,000 residents in Queensland and northern New South Wales were left without power earlier this month after Cyclone Alfred battered the region, prompting Sydney-based infrastructure management solutions company Neara to say current energy models are no longer viable in an increasingly volatile climate.

Australia’s largest planned renewable energy zone has reached another milestone with the New South Wales government launching the search for a network operator to help deliver the New England REZ that is to provide at least 8 GW of new network capacity.

Construction of the Maryvale Solar and Energy Storage project is set to begin in the coming weeks with renewables developer Gentari pressing go on the DC-coupled hybrid project being built in central western New South Wales.

Voltage control specialist EcoJoule Energy has banked $15 million in capital it says will underwrite the company’s global expansion and support the wider deployment of technology designed to help stabilise the electricity grid as it adjusts to increasing levels of solar capacity.

The merits of Australia’s growing electric vehicle fleet are on display in Queensland and northern New South Wales where hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

More than 16 GW of solar and wind generation and approximately 6 GW of energy storage projects could benefit from an accelerated environmental approvals process as the Australian government works to deliver critical infrastructure needed to achieve its clean energy targets, including 82% renewable electricity by 2030.