Articles written by Jonathan Gifford

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Markets & Policy
Key takeaways from All Energy Australia 2025 Despite the ongoing challenge of solar price cannibalization, Australia’s PV marketplace appears set for a period of acceleration. Renewable energy targets, supportive policy, and looming coal closures will require ongoing solar and storage installations – and a large pipeline is taking shape.
Jonathan Gifford
Nov 03, 2025
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Applications & Installations
History repeats as Iberian blackout demonstrates urgent need for battery storage The vast blackout that gripped the Iberian Peninsula on April 28 has echoes of a similar event in South Australia in 2016. The solution in both cases appears to be the same.
Jonathan Gifford
Apr 29, 2025
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Applications & Installations
Australian distributed battery rollout gets political As a federal election draws nearer, the ways in which much-needed batteries in Australia’s electricity distribution network are incentivised is becoming highly political. With the rollout of community battery projects supported by the federal government underway, industry insiders are hoping that politicians settle on measures that will make distributed battery adoption mainstream.
Jonathan Gifford
Mar 10, 2025
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Markets & Policy
Australian utility-scale battery deployment surges past solar, wind – falls short of requirements Big BESS is booming in Australia, with almost 5 GW of projects under construction last year, according Rystad Energy. While encouraging, the analyst reports that the volume remains insufficient to overcome growing rates of renewable curtailment. “We have around 3 GW operational at the moment, but about half of that is still in commissioning. So you still only have 1.5 GW on the market where the average load is 23 GW,” Rystad Energy’s David Dixon said.
Jonathan Gifford
Jan 14, 2025
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Applications & Installations
EV uptake helping drive increased demand for green steel Emissions from steel production each year equal those of a major developed economy. Yet steel is a crucial material to support the energy transition, among its many other applications – making its supply essential. Enter green steel, the production of which interrelates with solar, wind, and green hydrogen in intriguing ways.
Jonathan Gifford
Nov 29, 2024
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Markets & Policy
Australia’s big battery bonanza The volume of large-scale battery energy storage projects under construction in Australia passed that of solar and wind projects combined in 2023 and the trend has intensified this year, with batteries attracting federal support. As coal-fired power plants are shuttered, developers and suppliers are enjoying a battery bonanza.
Jonathan Gifford
Oct 18, 2024
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Applications & Installations
Bigger is better as module makers power ahead Larger wafer and module sizes have had a profound influence on module power output in recent years but standardisation appears to have taken hold, with no further increases evident in module data, according to Molly Morgan, a senior research analyst at Exawatt, which is now part of the CRU Group.
Jonathan Gifford
Jul 19, 2024
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Research & Development
Weekend read: Double trouble Perovskite PV devices are set to become the next big thing in solar with market analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights predicting 1 GW of production by the end of 2024, rising to 6 GW in 2025. Perovskite tandem devices are at the front of the queue for commercialisation but their characterisation presents technical challenges.
Jonathan Gifford
Jun 07, 2024
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Technology & Products
Weekend read: Tesla’s new power play The first installations featuring the Tesla Powerwall 3 are currently being completed in the United States, with the company promoting a fully integrated solar-plus-storage and electric vehicle (EV) residential system, with big backup power capacity. While the first Powerwall created a new market segment, the latest iteration enters a marketplace in oversupply.
Jonathan Gifford
Mar 22, 2024