Grids & Integration

Construction of a new $2.3 billion electricity interconnector that will link the South Australian and New South Wales energy networks is expected to commence early this year following the South Australian Government’s approval of the project’s Environmental Impact Statement.

The 162MW (AC) Columboola Solar Farm in the Western Downs of Queensland between Chinchilla and Miles has been successfully connected to the transmission network. QLD government-owned CS Energy has agreed to purchase 100% of the solar farms approximately 440GWh of annual clean energy for the next 10 years.

Current price signals to distributed battery owners “do not align with grid value,” says a study from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Western Australia’s state-owned electricity company Horizon Power has installed 19 solar + battery standalone power systems for farmers in Esperance on the state’s southern coast.

French renewable developer IPP Neoen announced the completion of its Bulgana wind-plus-storage project in the Australian state of Victoria. Having now installed more than 650MW of large-scale solar, wind, and battery storage in the state, the developer has pointed to its “well balanced” renewable portfolio in Victoria including an additional 2GW of projects in the pipeline.

Virtual power plants have turned a corner in this country, SwitchDin founder, Andrew Mears tells pv magazine Australia. With the new technology now firmly established, we take a look at the new approaches to orchestration which will inform the next wave of distributed energy resources management.

Green hydrogen can play a vital role in decarbonising the economy and enabling countries to reach net-zero emissions. The economics of producing green hydrogen from electrolysis are maturing as developers scramble to meet expected future demand. Everoze partner Nicolas Chouleur and Neoen hydrogen expert Sacha Lepoutre discuss a case study that shows how stacking different revenue streams could improve the economics of renewable energy projects.

Australia’s energy system was already a complex web, but it’s now transforming into the work of a labyrinth spider, which build tunnels so complicated and thick they look like white silk vortexes. You get the picture. Or you will from reading the Generator Insights 2021 report published today.

With Scottish company Smarter Grid Solutions having already seen its software deployed in the U.K., a pilot project in New York State has been a resounding success for a grid solution the NREL has predicted could unlock swathes of network capacity without the need for new power lines.

Hitachi Energy has won Northern Territory Labor’s tender for the Darwin-Katherine ‘Big Battery’, which is expected to unlock more capacity for residential and industrial PV, generate cost savings of $9.8 million and pay for itself in approximately five years.