Australian Capital Territory

The Australian Capital Territory government has firmed its commitment to deliver one of the largest battery storage systems in the Southern Hemisphere to support Canberra’s energy grid and the continued uptake of renewables with funding allocated in the upcoming budget to progress the Big Canberra Battery project.

The Australian Capital Territory is set to become the first Australian state or territory to phase out fossil fuel-powered vehicles with the government announcing plans to put the brakes on the sale of new petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles from 2035.

The market operator today announced a “staged” return to the national energy market’s normal operations as 4000 MW of generation capacity comes back into operation.

Dr Kathryn Lucas-Healey on vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies and the Australian National University’s (ANU) Realising Electric Vehicle-to-grid Services project which will see electric vehicles being used to support the the national electricity grid.

The Australian Capital Territory’s switch to 100% renewable electricity is providing electricity users in the nation’s capital with protection from skyrocketing energy costs as consumers in other parts of the nation grapple with rising energy bills.

Australian supermarket giant Woolworths has marked a major milestone in its rooftop solar program with a store in the Canberra suburb of Conder becoming the retailer’s 150th outlet to be fitted with solar PV panels.

A $150 million loan scheme introduced by the Australian Capital Territory government has sparked an uptake of rooftop solar in Canberra with more than 20MW of new solar PV rolled out across roofs in the nation’s capital.

Renewables developer Maoneng has confirmed that its 13MW Mugga Lane Solar Park in the Australian Capital Territory is up for sale after being placed into voluntary administration.

French renewable developer Neoen has signed a seven year agreement with energy giant AGL to provide 70 MW / 140 MWh of ‘virtual battery capacity’ in New South Wales.

Researchers at the Australian National University say they have set a perovskite solar cell efficiency record at 22.6%. This efficiency, however, appears to be lower than that achieved in January by a group of Swiss and Korean researchers who used quantum dots to achieve an efficiency of 25.7% in an area of 0.08cm2 and 23.3% in 1cm2.