Australia

With campuses throughout Victoria, La Trobe University this month further reduced its regional campus emissions by installing solar panels over more than 200 car-parking spaces — another milestone in its commitment to achieve net-zero by 2022!

Australian households delivered a record year for rooftop solar PV in 2020 with more than 350,000 small-scale solar systems totalling 3 GW installed across the country and the rapid growth shows no signs of slowing with the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) tipping another 4 GW could be installed before the end of 2021.

West Australian smart solar glass developer ClearVue continues to explore new applications for its building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology, offering up its solar glass windows to Murdoch University for a research project into near-zero energy transportable mining accommodation.

Solar manufacturing powerhouse Trina Solar’s focus on 210mm wafer-based solar PV technology continues unabated with the Chinese giant introducing trackers into the Australian market that are compatible with the new, larger-format modules.

The first stage of Neoen’s gigantic $3bn Goyder South Project in South Australia has received planning approval on the same day the French renewables company set out ambitions to exceed 10 GW in capacity by 2025, expansion largely planned in leading markets such as Australia.

It has now been over a year since City of Newcastle made the switch to a 100% renewable electricity supply contract, as one of the first Local Governments in Australia to do so. For those that love energy data, it tells an interesting tale.

Market analyst Fitch Solutions has raised its expectations for renewables in Australia, citing the country’s unrivalled green hydrogen project pipeline and its commercially viable large-scale battery storage sector.

Australian renewable energy and storage company Edify Energy has dismissed concerns about a slowdown in the roll out of utility scale solar PV in Australia, declaring the future remains bright for the sector.

All of BP’s service stations in New South Wales will be fuelled entirely by solar energy after Lightsource BP signed a power purchasing agreement with Snowy Hydro allowing it to move ahead with its 107 MWdc solar farm in the Riverina Region of New South Wales.

London-based Eco Energy World, which is already developing at 300 MW solar project north of Gladstone, Queensland, has announced that it is going to combine the solar plant with a 200 MW hydrogen plant and 100 MW of energy storage for green hydrogen exports to the global market.