Technology

Air New Zealand has ordered an electric five-seat plane to initially use for cargo-only services, with the intention of offering passenger services in future. The company has options to buy two more of the electric planes, with rights reserved on a further 20.

Redback Technologies has announced inverters certified as compliant with Queensland’s dynamic connections for energy exports. This enables homeowners to export energy back into the grid at a flexible rate so that energy output is only limited in roughly 2% of the time when excess power from PV installations would overwhelm the grid.

Lawrence Berkeley researchers studied how solar buying decisions are influenced across varying income levels and offer rationale for policy changes and incentives to spur adoption among low- to middle-income households.

For the seventh year in the row, China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) looks set to claim the title of the world’s biggest battery maker. There are a number of reasons why it continues to maintain its lead in the electric vehicle (EV) and battery energy storage system (BESS) markets.

Australian energy giant AGL will install a nickel-hydrogen battery at its Torrens Island power station site in South Australia as it seeks to explore the potential opportunities that the technology can provide for stationary energy storage applications.

First Solar and its cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology dominate thin-film solar in the mainstream market. Valerie Thompson looks at the US-based business and the future of thin-film PV technology.

Through a co-funding deal with Victoria’s newly revived SEC, Equis Development has reached financial close and begun construction on phase 1 of its giant 1.2 GW Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub. Plans for the hub, which includes gigawatt hours of storage, seem to have shifted somewhat, with phase 1 now three independent batteries of 200 MW with either two- or four-hours of storage.

A study by engineers at UNSW, published in the Renewable Energy journal, shows that aerosols and greenhouse gas emissions reduce the productivity of photovoltaic installations and that this differs according to the global region.  

The sun is shining, the weather is sweet. In this Opinion and Analysis piece, Lumi Adisa, Director of Energy Market Analytics at NEOM and ex-Investment Director of Energy Markets at Octopus Investments Australia, presents a deep dive into the unprecedented impact of rooftop solar in the NEM. As rooftop solar continues to drive changes in the intraday demand and price trends, it is evident that customers will remain a significant part of the energy transition for years to come.

German researchers measured a PV-powered heat pump with battery storage in a single-family home in Freiburg, Germany, for a period of a year. It features smart grid-ready tech that adjusts operations based on the grid.