News

The $54 million (USD 34m) raise for Zen Energy, managed by Western Australian Property developer Hesperia and ASX-listed Income Asset Management, is the first tranche of around $150 million that Zen Energy is aiming to raise for its pipeline of projects.

The figures for large-scale certificates registrations across most of Australia this year are dismal, despite the nation adopting a far brighter policy landscape. “There’s a very large discrepancy between rhetoric and what’s actually occurring,” Sunwiz managing director Warwick Johnston tells pv magazine.

H2FLY claims that a recent three-hour test flight, entirely powered by liquid hydrogen, could lead to sustainable long-range flights fuelled by liquefied, cryogenic hydrogen. Solaris, meanwhile, has started selling hydrogen buses in Italy.

Zonal Renewables plans to construct a new 100 MW floating solar project on a 90-hectare fishpond in the Philippines, in Cadiz, Negros Occidental province.

Modelling from UNSW and the Australian PV Institute has found governments investing in rooftop solar for state-owned and NGO-owned social housing would save low-income tenants money, deliver returns within just a handful of years, and support the grid with new generation.

Gentari, a subsidiary of Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas, plans to build between 5 GW to 8 GW of solar, wind and battery projects in Australia by 2030. The ambition follows its acquisition and rebranding of Wirsol Energy, which marked the Malaysian company’s entry into the Australian renewable energy market.

New digital modelling technology has made visible 10 GW of untapped capacity in Australia’s existing electricity networks. “That 10 GW number is probably achievable without any meaningful incremental cost investment,” Neara cofounder Jack Curtis tells pv magazine Australia. “This is something that’s really only come into awareness of policy makers, and even the private sector, in past six months.”

Multiple factors affect the productive lifespan of a residential solar panel. In the first part of this series, we look at the solar panels themselves.

REC has developed a new series of heterojunction solar panels with efficiencies up to 22.6% and an operating temperature coefficient of -0.24% per degree Celsius.

Researchers in Australia have provided a series of recommendations to set up regulatory frameworks for PV module recycling and reuse. They said that, as a rule of thumb, landfill bans, tracking of the panels’ serial numbers, and a clear definition of ownership should always be included in the legislation for end-of-life solar products.