News

The Sydney-based publicly listed renewables developer has completed the acquisition of the 50 MW Jemalong solar PV project in New South Wales. It has also commenced refinancing of a 50 MW solar projects that forms part of its landmark Kidston renewable energy hub, Australia’s first large-scale project to use pumped hydro to store solar generated power.

After reporting a $45 million loss in its half year results, the troubled renewable energy developer has suffered a new blow. The Western Australia government has terminated the $16 million financial assistance agreement for the Albany wave energy project, noting that unexpected proposal to change Federal Government’s R&D tax incentive scheme contributed to destabilization of the company’s financial position. 

With time running out for us to make deep reductions in greenhouse emissions, you may well be wondering what you personally can do to minimise your own greenhouse footprint.

The Chinese mono giant is already producing bifacial half cut modules at its new Anhui fab after the completion of an initial 2.5 GW phase of operations. And the company president confirmed Longi is on track for 45 GW of mono wafer and ingot production capacity next year.

Renewable energy had a 64.8% share of electricity generation, according to solar research institute Fraunhofer ISE. The achievement was mainly due to strong production from wind facilities.

As data drifts in, 2018 is shaping up to have been a record-breaking year for battery energy storage, writes IHS Markit senior analyst Julian Jansen. Especially for front-of-the-meter projects, which experienced rapid growth. This growth was led by significant activity in South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and China, which together accounted for 78% of battery energy storage projects commissioned in 2018, according to the Q4 2018 edition of the IHS Markit “Energy Storage Company and Project Database.”

In response to the energy sector’s transition from coal to renewables and distributed energy resources, Western Australia’s Labor government says it has started drafting a strategy to deliver a cleaner and more resilient energy supply for decades to come. Coming off the back of the strategy launch, WA’s environment watchdog has announced new and expanding mining and oil and gas projects would face much tougher scrutiny around their emissions. The WA government has moved to distance itself from the proposed emissions rules.

The U.S.-based tracker manufacturer has been chosen to supply its DuraTrack HZ v3 solar trackers to one of Australia’s largest PV projects – the 333 MW DC (275 MW AC) solar farm at Darlington Point, NSW.

In 2021, the settlement period for the supply of energy into the NEM will decrease from 30 minutes to five minutes, creating market conditions for batteries to start being deployed in the solar utility market. One of the world’s most respected inverter manufacturers is currently shipping central inverters that enable anytime integration of battery storage. Retrofits for already installed systems are on the next boat.

Australia’s two upcoming elections — in NSW this month and Federally in May — have brought to light the extreme contrasts that exist in Australian politics around the value of renewable energy, the indispensibility of coal to Australia’s economy and how the country might alleviate the high energy prices consumers are dealing with. Here are two recently presented views from each end of the political spectrum.