Grids & Integration

The University of Wollongong has secured $5 million in federal government funding to establish a renewable energy focused training centre which will address the “complex and challenging issues” currently limiting the growth of renewables, including solar PV and wind energy in Australia.

According to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hydrogen-fired gas plants will compete with lithium-ion storage for seasonal storage and their competitiveness will strictly depend on the heat rate of the gas power plants they may replace.

Researchers from Melbourne’s Monash University have unveiled new machine learning technology which has already delivered a 45% improvement in the precision of power output forecasts at large-scale wind and solar farms and could potentially pave the way for increased renewable energy penetration in the grid.

In his first public address, the newly appointed head of the Australian Energy Market Operator significantly upped the Operator’s ambitions for renewable penetrations in the grid, conveying the importance of no longer constraining what he called ‘zero cost’ renewable energy assets.

The Australian National University today opened its Distributed Energy Resources Lab, dedicated to researching and testing technologies including batteries, solar panels and electric vehicles which it says will “underpin the energy grids of the future”.


The question of overly complicated, time-consuming permitting processes again raised its head at a two-day online event held by the Global Solar Council to examine how to accelerate deployment of photovoltaics.

Proponents of CopperString 2.0, a proposed 1,100-kilometre high-voltage transmission line set to connect Queensland’s northwest to the National Electricity Market (NEM), have declared the project is expected to be “shovel ready” within three months.

As the search for solutions to integrate increasing levels of energy technologies like solar PV and batteries into the electricity grid continues, Queensland-based energy data specialist Luceo Energy has revealed a new software platform designed to help electricity distributors manage consumer-owned devices across low-voltage networks.

Victorian network operator AusNet has revealed the preferred route for a proposed $300 million electricity transmission line which is expected to unlock thousands of megawatts of new solar and wind resources in the state’s western region.

Smart energy software company Evergen will provide an energy management platform as part of a net-zero energy emission terrace homes pilot at Carseldine Village, north of Brisbane.