Australia

Australian scientists have developed an algorithm to increase both the efficiency and compatibility of light sensitisers in solar panels, encompassing silicon cells for the first time.

Australia needs an orderly, least-cost, lowest-disruption transition to renewable energy. Set a target. Retire coal. Support displaced workers. Get it done. The Blueprint Institute’s new report is surely 2020’s last logical word in calling the Federal Coalition to action.

The Australian Energy Market Commission’s latest annual Residential Electricity Price Trends report shows costs reducing as renewable build out replaces inefficient coal-fired generation, and more lowest-cost renewable supply is on the way.

Soon 2020 will only be a worry to future high-school history students. But when they ask us if anything good at all happened in 2020, remember this review and tell them that solar PV shone in the darkness. Despite the mess of it all, 2020 has been another good year for Australian solar. The industry has demonstrated resilience, and significant progress has been made in the fields of energy storage, green hydrogen and others.

In light of the Morrison Government committing another $94 million to Marinus Link, Cornwall Insight Australia Senior Analyst, Jake Dunstan, asks whether Tasmania can do both; support the mainland and develop a renewable hydrogen industry locally.

Powertracer is a new Australian-developed data platform that accounts for the origins of each retail customer’s energy in half-hour blocks. The effect is to open up new models of choosing and offering renewably sourced energy, and accelerate demand.

A small number of utility-scale PV arrays of an entirely different nature are taking shape Down Under. Over the past six years, Aussie solar startup 5B has been developing and deploying its pre-assembled and relocatable Maverick mounting structures “on a shoestring budget.” But with a major solar developer having joined as a strategic investor, the company is now looking to make prefabricated arrays a mainstream option for utility-scale PV.

Mining company Centennial Coal has received more than $5 million in government funding to investigate the feasibility of turning an old underground coal mine near Newcastle into a pumped hydro storage site which could supply 600 MW of renewable energy to the grid.

An award-winning Australian solar-powered ‘water battery’ has been lauded as an unmitigated success with figures from the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) revealing the system generated more than 3 GWh of electricity in its first 12 months of operation.

Australian gold mining company Gold Road Resources will be relying on a ‘state-of-the-art’ renewable energy system as it continues operations at its Yamarna exploration camp about 1,200 kilometres east of Perth.