News

Construction works are expected to start soon on two utility-scale solar PV project in New South Wales with a combined capacity of more than 460 MW, as confirmed by German-based Belectric, which will handle the EPC and O&M duties on both sites.

The latest reports from analysts at PV InfoLink and EnergyTrend show prices continuing to fall, though at a slower rate than was seen immediately after China’s 31/5 announcements. High efficiency mono-PERC modules fell to around $0.32/W, while multicrystalline module prices hold steady between $0.26 and $0.29/W.

In a wide ranging report released on Tuesday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recommended scrapping the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) – which provides a sizeable capital subsidy to small scale rooftop PV. The Smart Energy Council has criticised the proposal and called for the Federal Government to “rule out abolishing the SRES.”

This year, more than 200,000 small-scale solar systems are set to be installed in Australia. The extraordinary expansion in rooftop solar deployment has been revealed in the latest figures from Green Energy Markets, which points to more than 1.4 GW of sub-100kW PV being added throughout the year.

Brisbane-based redox-flow supplier Redflow has begun shipping batteries from its new Thai manufacturing facility to Fiji, under a $1.6 million telecommunications supply deal. The batteries will be deployed by New Zealand’s Hitech Solutions to power Fiji’s new digital television network over the next six months.

In a Q&A with Bloomberg NEF (BNEF), two solar analysts tell pv magazine they see no PV module price rebound, continuing oversupply, and falling utilization rates. They expect Q4 could be a “hot market” for contract negotiations, while Chinese developers will start overseas construction earlier than planned for two key reasons.

Chinese manufacturer, JA Solar has secured a long-term buyer credit loan facility worth US$68.4 million for the procurement of equipment for its 1.5 GW wafer facility in Vietnam.

A new poll by Morning Consult found surprisingly strong support for a California-style mandate across the political spectrum, although Liberals were more likely to favor the measure than Conservatives.

While overall global investment in clean energy saw a decrease of just 1% YoY in the first half of 2018, solar’s share dropped 19% following changes to China’s PV policy and lower project costs, says Bloomberg NEF (BNEF). It forecasts this trend to continue throughout the year.

DNV GL, Deakin University, the CSIRO, and the Smart Energy Council have come together to collaborate on a two-year project to develop a new performance standard for distributed energy storage systems. The work behind the proposed Australian Battery Performance Standard is being funded $1.9 million from ARENA and the Victoria state government.