Technology

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.

Researchers led by Belgian institute imec claim to have achieved the result with a 1cm² flexible thin-film cell intended for building-integrated PV application. The result tops the 24.6% efficiency the consortium announced in September 2018. The cell’s developers are now aiming for 30%.

Australian researchers have compiled data from 173 studies which examined homeowner behavior when buying rooftop PV and identified 333 predictors related to the attitude, knowledge, tendency, awareness, willingness and intent of householders.

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.

A world-class research and development hub planned for Cairns will be home to a supercomputer that will be used to simulate and model intricate networks in order to enable renewable energy and energy storage to form a greater part of microgrids and isolated systems for remote communities.

Professor Guan Yeoh is an essential part of a project to commercialise a solar polymer membrane called ‘Solar Skin’, which can generate energy from both direct and indirect sunlight and off both vertical and horizontal surfaces. The technology has the potential to transform every CBD and local government area into a solar farm. pv magazine Australia sat down with Professor Yeoh for a Q&A.

Scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland have set a new world record for a quantum dot solar cell. The group fabricated a 0.1cm² device from perovskite and measured power conversion efficiency at 16.6%. The record has been verified by the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The PHASA-35 crewless solar and battery-powered aircraft completed its first test flight this week. The pioneering solar-powered aircraft could fill a niche as a cheap alternative to satellites.