News

Australia’s more than 1,300 golf clubs can each spend upwards of $100,000 a year on electricity bills in the process of managing their greens and running their clubhouses. Today AEES Group announced an exclusive partnership with Golf Management Australia, to provide customised energy-efficiency audits and solar solutions that can reduce Australian clubs’ carbon footprint, and their grid-derived energy by up to 60%.

Call them aspiring sun gods: In the lead up to the 2019 New South Wales election on 23 March, Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change Adam Searle and the NSW Liberal & National Government Energy Minister Don Harwin have both announced solar policies that support NSW householders to install rooftop solar-PV systems and thereby reduce their energy bills.

The growing market for tracker-mounted solar within the U.S. commercial and industrial market is being driven squarely by mammoth utility bills that often include time-of-use charges and total demand charges. Single-axis and double-axis systems are being deployed on warehouses, at agricultural facilities, factories, mines, landfills, carports, and other sites, often with a payback of only a few years, equipment sellers say.

In an Australian first, Canada’s Hydrostor is delivering a 5 MW / 10 MWh compressed air energy storage facility, which will store excess solar and wind power at a closed underground mine in South Australia.

While U.S. senators Ed Markey and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduce a resolution for a clean energy package, legislation has been tabled in six states aiming to implement 80-100% clean energy by 2050 or earlier.

The 240 MW Prairie Solar Farm in Victoria has moved forward with a planning permission and the 315 MW Clarke Creek Solar Farm in Queensland has received a material change of use permit.

Australia’s renewable sector is driving the country towards its Paris commitments well ahead of schedule. The Australian National University (ANU) published the findings today, concluding that on the current trajectory the country is on track to hit 50% renewable electricity in 2024 and 100% in 2032 – at a net cost “of approximately zero.” Despite the good news, the Clean Energy Council warns that current federal government policy may result in the country squandering the opportunity.

Indra Overland, head of the Center for Energy Research at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, explains how the world’s future energy landscape may include pan-regional super-grids. However, prosumer states seeking energy independence could also be in the mix. According to Overland, the two developments will go hand in hand and the balance between them will be determined by the competitiveness of storage technologies.

The Central Goldfields Shire Council has given its tick of approval for the construction of the Carisbrook Solar Farm, proposed by Germany’s ib vogt.

Elliott Green Power (EGP) has completed the construction and grid connection of its 95 MW Susan River Solar Farm in South East Queensland. The utility scale array is part of a three-project, 300 MW portfolio EGP is developing in Queensland and New South Wales.