Grids & Integration

The Berejiklian government has launched a pilot program that will allow eligible Hunter residents to access interest-free loans for battery and solar-battery systems.

South Australia is seeing a surge of small-scale utility solar as the niche, particularly around the 5MW mark, can fly under the radar of much of the electricity network’s congestion woes. The newly completed Mannum Solar Farm Project is one such example.

The Australian network rule maker has ignored the plea of some of the biggest solar and wind project owners in Australia to change the way marginal loss factors (MLFs) are calculated. While it has acknowledged that transmission has failed to keep up the pace with renewable energy investment, it did not come up with any suggestion on what should be done to ameliorate the problem.

The Western Australian government-owned utility is continuing the rollout of its landmark off-grid program for regional properties looking to reduce or entirely remove the need for new poles and wires.

The ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Solutions has a broad research mandate as it looks for innovative energy storage solutions for the energy transition, but some of the nation’s finest minds are now working on them together.

The Victorian government has decided to break away from national electricity rules and introduce legislation that will fast-track priority projects like grid-scale batteries and transmission upgrades and make room for more large-scale solar and wind on the grid. The announced reforms have prompted a flurry of reactions.

Despite a massive drop in renewable energy investment seen last year, 2020 promises to bring both good and bad news for the Australian solar sector. While network conditions will continue to deteriorate, the low-carbon policy will become more supportive but also more chaotic.

In a bid to seek resolution of all disputed claims, Windlab has reached a standstill agreement with the EPC contractor on the Kennedy Energy Park, Australia’s first project on a major grid to combine wind, solar and battery technologies.

As the survival of the fittest continues in Australia’s notoriously competitive EPC market, the Sydney-based diversified infrastructure company has signaled that it will no longer bid fixed prices to build solar.

Against the backdrop of extreme heat, generator, and transmission line outages and intense bushfires, revenues for grid-scale batteries on the National Electricity Market (NEM) have been trending upwards.