Australia

An energy production and trading scheme designed for the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide will incorporate one of Australia’s largest rooftop solar arrays to provide energy to businesses and homes within the growing precinct.

The Western Australia government has signaled scrapping or winding back subsidies for rooftop solar, while looking for ways to boost battery uptake.

According to the latest statistics from the Clean Energy Council (CEC), there are 42 wind and solar projects totaling 6239 MW worth close to $10 billion currently in construction or due to start soon across Australia. The unprecedented large-scale renewables activity is, however, surrounded by growing uncertainty over future policy and regulatory change.

In its annual reports, the Australian Energy Market Commission has proposed a number of changes to tighten Australia’s power system and improve reliability and regulation, reflecting on opportunities and challenges created by a significant increase in the uptake of distributed energy resources. The new recommendations are likely to encourage network development towards P2P energy trading, VPPs and electric vehicle charging.

Looking back on the 2017-18 financial year, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has confirmed it provided $1.1 billion towards renewable energy projects, including 10 large-scale solar projects.

Having finalized the financing agreement for the project, French renewable energy producer Neoen announced that full construction on Victoria’ Numurkah Solar Farm is ready to commence this week, with major supply contracts previously secured for the Laverton steelworks and the Melbourne tram network.

The Australian Energy Market Operator’s wide-ranging and detailed Integrated System Plan prompted a flurry of media reactions that boil down to two conflicting interpretations of its purpose. Some interpreted the findings as a call to hold on tight to coal-fired power, while others a remarkable confirmation that renewables are the optimal electricity source of the future, and high penetrations are both practicable and cost effective.

Falling module prices could very well dramatically enhance the competitiveness of large scale solar in Australia – pushing the price at which PV can be produced below the wholesale curve. Rystad Energy believes that with a 20-30% module price decline, as has been forecast, $60MWh utility scale solar could become the new reality.

Green Energy Markets’ latest analysis shows that the National Electricity Market is on track to get 33% renewable electricity by 2020, with individual states performing well beyond that. In addition, the report shows that solar jobs will be lost unless the National Energy Guarantee’s 26% emissions reduction target by 2030 is lifted.

Local production of its Power Skid central inverter platform delivers a host of benefits when meeting surging demand claims SMA. Local jobs add icing to the cake, says SMA’s Bernhard Voll in an interview in advance of a webinar on the new product.