Australia

Victoria’s new Solar For Business Program, announced yesterday, will halve the upfront cost of solar systems for 15,000 businesses over the coming three years, and is designed to help lift small enterprises out of pandemic-induced hard times.

Congestion due to the push and pull of demand and generation across inadequate transmission infrastructure continues to play havoc with marginal loss factors. Although NSW bears the brunt of AEMO’s draft calculations for the coming financial year, there are some bright spots in the NEM.

Award-winning and globally recognised Four Pillars gin distillery, which produces its premium product in Healesville, Victoria, has utilised Sustainable Australia Fund low-interest financing to solar power its stills, save money, and take a load off the grid and the environment.

Both solar and the farming industry are beginning to see potential in the combined use of land for food production and energy generation. And as innovators begin to experiment with different forms, it’s becoming clear that in most cases it is solar that will have to bend to the needs of agriculture, and not the other way around, to ensure a positive outcome.

Safety when transporting solar PV modules from warehouse to job site is an ongoing issue for installers but one Queensland solar company has designed and manufactured a simple yet effective racking system that helps allay those concerns.

Wollongong, for decades a hub for coal and steel industries, is keen to play a key role in Australia’s decarbonised energy future with the local council proposing the coastal city as the ideal location for large-scale clean energy hydrogen production.

With increasing numbers of decommissioned solar PV modules threatening a waste management nightmare, researchers at the University of South Australia are spearheading a national push to establish a stewardship scheme designed to manage the impacts of PV systems through their life cycle.

Last year the New South Wales Government announced plans to retire several of the iconic Manly ferries and replace them with smaller vessels. However, the recent launch of the world’s largest electric ferry in Norway has one Aussie billionaire asking whether the new Manly ferries should be electric?

Victorian electricity distributors Powercor and Citipower are setting out to alleviate grid congestion in area of high solar penetration, particularly in Western Victoria. The works are designed to increase the ability of rooftop solar owners to export solar to the grid amid the continuing uptake of residential solar.

With battery energy storage systems playing an increasingly critical role in the nation’s renewable energy transition, fledgling lithium-ion battery manufacturer Energy Renaissance has welcomed a Federal Government initiative designed to boost processing of critical minerals needed for batteries, solar panels and wind turbines and build the country’s manufacturing capability.