News

A utility-scale “integrated agri-solar” farm proposed in southern New South Wales has begun its public exhibition period.

Officeworks jumped on the bandwagon of businesses in Australia committing to 100% renewable electricity in the next five years. Both Bunnings and Officeworks announced their plans in the last week, sparking calls for Target and Kmart, which are also in the Wesfarmers portfolio, to follow suit.

230 Northern Territory businesses have already received their vouchers for Australia’s most generous energy storage subsidity, the NT’s Home and Business Battery Scheme. The scheme, which is still open for applications until November 30, offers grants of $6,00 to homeowners and business owners to install solar and battery storage, or complement an existing solar system with a battery.

In a new paper published in the journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, renowned PV scientist Pierre Verlinden examines the solar industry’s trajectory towards the 70 TW of installed capacity that will be needed by 2050, as the best choice for meeting climate targets set out in the 2015 Paris agreement. Silver consumption and recycling, according to Verlinden, will be the biggest challenges in the years to come, as well as ensuring balanced growth and avoiding a major installation rush in the years close to 2050.

South African scientists have used a PV system to keep tomatoes in cold storage. They linked an air-cooling system and evaporative cooling tech to a 3.5 kW array and 12 batteries and tested it for 28 days in September.

Power electronics supplier SolarEdge has released its 2025 Sustainability Commitments. In the report announcing its social and environmental targets, the company pointed to its participation in VPP projects in Australia, along with a new three-phase residential inverter.

The winners of the Clean Energy Council’s 2020 solar design and installation awards announced today have been applauded as stunning examples of the innovative solutions being deployed in the commercial rooftop solar sector (C&I) as more businesses look to reap the benefits of solar.

Victorian utility North East Water have constructed a mini-solar farm over the carpark of their Wodonga headquarters. The 132 kW system is expected to provide half of the building’s energy use, with 330 modules generating 500kW per day in addition to the headquarter’s existing rooftop PV array.

As part of their recently finalised power sharing agreement, ACT Labor and the Greens will offer interest-free loans to households and organisations investing in rooftop solar panels and battery storage. The alliance government also plans to deliver at least 250MW of new ‘large-scale’ battery storage distributed across the ACT.

Cornwall Insight Australia’s Lead Consultant – Market Analysis, Lumi Adisa, compares the lead times of major coal fired power station retirements in the National Energy Market (NEM) and analyses how renewables, particularly solar plus battery storage, are able to replace lost generation in the transition to a two-sided market.