Technology

pv magazine Australia sits down with Fulcrum 3D, the provider of the most accurate ground-based forecasting technologies for the solar and wind sectors. It’s amazing what a difference a bit of knowledge ahead of time can make.

Large energy consumers will be allowed into the wholesale market and paid for reducing their power usage at times of peak demand under a new rule that will be introduced next year.

Dutch startup Solar Visuals and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) have developed new “mimic design” facade modules that reproduce the features of building surfaces. Lenneke Slooff-Hoek, a senior scientist for TNO, told pv magazine that the panels can be made in any size or color at 13% efficiency, adding that they have a partly transparent colored layer made of small dots.

An Ieefa report has suggested the cost of generating electricity from solar will be near zero in the world’s sunniest regions by 2030-40 – despite what the naysayers at the International Energy Agency might think.

By scanning millions of iterations, pvDesign finds the best plant configuration and automatically generates over 300 pages of detailed documentation in seconds. The Spanish firm has just landed its first Australian client.

Scientists at Moscow’s Skoltech Center for Energy Science and Technology have developed a method of visualizing the formation of layers on battery electrodes during their initial operation. The observations reveal various mechanisms that could be optimized to improve battery performance and operational lifetime.

Who says that upgrade of energy transmission need march across the landscape as massive metal towers strung with buzzing electricity lines? One battery energy storage system provider is offering an alternative vision — fast deployment, scaleability and flexible application of assets that can’t be stranded…

As utilities, networks and governments get their distributed-resource ducks in a row, the time is ripe for VPPs and microgrids to play a more powerful role in Australia’s energy system. The latest? SwitchDin, a DER innovator with globally acknowledged capabilities has attracted investment from Q Cells a PV manufacturer with chops and channels.

One of Australia’s first utility-scale PV projects, the 53 MW Broken Hill Solar Farm in New South Wales, has emerged as a top solar performer in the National Electricity Market in May.

The federal government has announced funding for a series of microgrid feasibility studies that will seek to unlock more secure, affordable, and reliable energy for regional and Indigenous communities.