Australia

The Victorian government has allocated another $2 million in funding for Australia’s renewables-powered electric vehicle ultrafast charging stations, as the first charging site was unveiled at Euroa.

Sydney Water’s Bondi sewage pumping station will soon be storing solar energy through the use of 30 kWh of sodium-ion batteries, a cheaper alternative to the traditional lithium-ion batteries.

While there has been no concrete result of the COAG Energy Council meeting on Friday, a clear message was sent that climate change will not be considered as part of the country’s energy policy. The energy ministers remain locked in stalemate until December, when decisions will be made on a reliability obligation and national default offer for power.

The bottler of the iconic beverage brand in Australia, Coca-Cola Amatil, is set to roll out 3.5 MW of rooftop solar across its operations in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. The solar arrays are forecast to cut the company’s annual energy costs by up to $1.3 million.

Despite political hurdles in key markets including China, India and Japan, Asia-Pacific remains highly active. This year, 59 GW of solar is expected to be installed and due to further system price declines, a phase-out of subsidy schemes can be offset.

Melbourne-based energy tech startup GreenSync has officially launched the Decentralized Energy Exchange (deX), a digital marketplace for grid services provided by rooftop solar arrays, battery storage and EVs owned by Australian homes and businesses.

Announcing the appointment a new managing director for Australia and Asia Pacific, the German storage provider has confirmed it expects to produce the first batteries from its production line at the former Holden site in Elizabeth, SA, next month.

Know for its blockchain-based P2P platform that allows energy trading between households, the Perth-based company is now launching a new token designed to provide retail investors with the opportunity to fund and generate revenue from shared renewable energy infrastructure.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has said there are no plans to change the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES), despite the ACCC recommendations to wind it down nine years early.

Independence Group is set to add to a 6.7 MW solar PV array to its existing diesel power station at the Nova mine in Western Australia. Remote power generation specialist Zenith Energy has been contracted to deliver the solar project, in what will be Australia’s first fully-integrated commercial hybrid diesel/solar PV facility.