Australia

Solar installers operating in Western Australia’s South West claim recent changes made by the sole network operator, Western Power, are forcing them into a no-win situation of either operating ‘unethically’ or haemorrhaging customers. And for regional customers, the changes mean installing a renewable system will likely see their household unable run basic household appliances without constantly tripping the power.

ARENA today announced 12 projects with a combined capacity of 3 GW are on the shortlist for its $100 million Large Scale Battery Storage Round which aims to support to rollout of storage fitted with grid forming capacities.

Winter has proven no feat for the sunshine state, which is home to basically all of Australia’s best performing PV assets, senior Rystad analyst David Dixon finds.

Rooftop solar systems are cheaper then centralised ground mounted systems for remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, a new report funded by ARENA and APVI has found. The report, however, did not examine the question of community benefit in its scope – something Alan Langworthy, who has long worked in energy in the NT, told pv magazine Australia is absolutely vital.

Australia’s largest EV charging network, Chargefox, has been fully acquired by Australia’s motoring clubs via their company Australian Motoring Services.

Australian company AspiraDAC, which uses solar powered Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere, has been selected to be part of the first round of purchases from Frontier, a program backed by Facebook and Google’s parent companies, Meta and Alphabet.

Queensland regional airline Skytrans Airlines and engineering firm Stralis Aircraft plan to develop and trial a hydrogen electric propulsion aircraft by 2026.

Macquarie Capital, Moelis and MA Financial Group have been appointed as joint financial advisers to the world’s largest solar farm, battery and undersea electricity cable project, the $30 billion plus Australia-Asia PowerLink Sun Cable project in the Northern Territory.

Global efforts to build energy and transport systems based on lower-emission sources are expected to drive Australia’s mining and energy export revenues to record highs of more than $400 billion for a second consecutive year.

Western Australian renewables company Provaris Energy has lodged a referral submission to the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority for its proposed 2.8 GW green hydrogen export project being developed on the Tiwi Islands off Australia’s north coast.