Australia

German inverter supplier SMA has continued to build on its very strong position in the Australian large scale solar market segment, being selected to supply what will be the largest PV power plant in the country. The Limondale Solar Farm in NSW will 57 SMA MPVS systems and two SMA Power Plant Controllers.

The Newcastle City Council has begun construction on a 5 MW Summerhill solar farm located on a disused landfill that was once part of a coal mine.

The University of Technology of Sydney (UTS) will cover the equivalent of half of its annual electricity needs with solar power from the 32 MW Walgett Solar Farm in north-west NSW. The power purchase agreement will allow the $40 million solar project to break ground.

The Victorian Branch of the Electrical Trades Union has called on RCR Tomlinson to “immediately pay arrears” owed to contractors in Victorian projects. The union has questioned reports that PV projects, such as the Wemen Solar Farm, are nearing completion.

Hydrogen produced by electrolysers powered by solar and wind in Australia could replace 3% of the world’s gas consumption. The IEA made the observation today in its ‘flagship’ annual publication, noting that by 2040 costs of renewable hydrogen in northern Australia would likely be competitive with hydrogen produced from natural gas.

The New South Wales government is set to accelerate $2.5 billion worth of transmission projects in order to address grid bottlenecks and unlock low-cost, low-emission generation in new areas of the state. As part of its grid transformation plan, NSW will boost connections with its neighboring states and bring forward the Snowy Hydro scheme.

Coal miner Glencore is failing investors in its latest forecasts.

Only weeks after Victoria’s first big battery was unveiled in Ballarat, the retrofitted 25MW/50MWh Tesla powerpack battery at the Gannawarra Solar Farm was commissioned ahead of schedule, confirms Germany’s Wirsol Energy. The developer’s major solar projects in Victoria have reached milestones: the 60 MW Ganawarra Solar Farm has successfully passed all commissioning tests, and the 110 MW Wemen Solar Farm has been connected to the grid.

Major universities across Australia are turning to solar PV to bring down energy costs, and to show leadership on climate change. In addition to deploying rooftop arrays across campuses, they are now developing their own renewable energy assets and coming to inventive financial arrangements, emerging as torchbearers in this booming corporate PPA market.

While the SRES appears safe, the rooftop PV market is likely to thrive even as the certificates phase out. So says Hans-Georg Einwagner – Area Sales Manager Asia-Pacific Region, for Austrian inverter maker Fronius. With something approaching 40% market share in the DG rooftop segment in certain segments, Einwagner says Fronius’ quality and service model is behind the company’s strong showing.