A new three-phase residential inverter and battery solution will be introduced to the Australian market in the new year. Fronius and BYD underlined their collaborative agreement when representatives of the two companies met “recently” in Austria. Fronius believes the solution is the first of its kind to provide “this type of emergency power supply.”

Perovskite solar cell specialist Greatcell Solar has failed to secured refinancing for its activities and has been forced to appoint administrators. The company lays the blame at the federal government’s door, pointing to the R&D rebate changes and policy settings that are unsupportive of renewable energy investment as the reasons behind its downfall.

The federal government has launched a strategy seeking investment to unlock Australia’s potential in lithium-ion battery manufacturing. Noting that the nation’s mineral reserves cover 90% of the elements required in li-ion battery chemistry, the new Austrade report underlines that Australia is well-positioned to become a world leader in this fast growing market.

The New South Wales government has released new guidelines for PV power plant developers in the state. The guidelines encourage “early consultation, continual consultation and suitable site selection.”

The Clean Energy Council has tallied the numbers underlying Australia’s large scale renewables boom. And big PV is shattering all records, with almost $11.5 billion in projects currently being constructed.

2018 has been a watershed year for Australia’s PV sector, with the surge to rooftop solar uptake making the country the residential-PV capital of the world. And there’s a considerable potential room for growth, a whopping 50 GW a new study has found.

High levels of rooftop PV penetration, an informed public, small seasonal irradiance variation, and market structures that favour maximising solar self consumption: Australia is ideally situated to see the adoption of the smart home. So says SolarEdge founder Lior Handelsman who spells out how the company is expanding its Aussie operations and offering a growing range of solutions to put rooftop PV to its best use.

NREL has proposed a new methodology for determining solar module degradation rates, taking into account measurement challenges such as sensor drift, inverter nuances, soiling and others – keeping the focus on the solar modules themselves.

The UNSW Sunswift solar car team has set a new record for the lowest energy consumption while driving across Australia in an electric car. The team completed the journey between Perth and Sydney two days ahead of schedule with the car’s energy consumption on the journey came in well below the previous record.

The system turns light of white-glowing molten silicon into electricity using specialized PV cells. The researchers claim that the concept could store electricity at around half the costs of pumped hydro. A single system comprising two ten meter tanks could power 100,000 households.