New South Wales

Neoen’s Hornsdale Power Reserve has gone to work in the first half of 2020, virtually tripling the French renewables developer’s storage revenue on comparative 2019 levels. However, this growth was largely caused by a one-off event, and a slower Q2 highlights the need for FCAS policy renewal. Neoen’s Australian solar revenues could also achieve little more than consistency thanks to poor conditions.

NSW State Government-owned water and sewage utility Hunter Water is set to join a now surging river of water utilities around Australia investing strongly in the uptake of solar PV. The announcement came with the completion of a 100 kW system at Branxton Wastewater Treatment Works.

Sydney’s Northern Beaches Council has installed its largest solar array to date, a 265 kW rooftop system atop the Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton Aquatic Centre in Manly. Council is revving up its solar capacity on its way to a goal of having renewable energy power all suitable Council sites by 2030, an ambition it hopes will inspire more local residents to take up solar too.

The New South Wales town of Parkes, famous for its involvement in the Apollo 11 Moon landing, is set to play a part in another scientific wonder, the transition to renewable energy, after the NSW Government approved the development of the 80 MW Quorn Park Solar Farm. A small step in the plan , but a giant leap for the planet.

You might think public hospitals have a duty of care to protect the community and reduce emissions by applying a warm blanket of solar PV to their many hectares of rooftop space. The NSW Government is fulfilling that prescription.

Thanks to the Covid-19 many of us find ourselves in lockdown with little reprieve other than a morning potter or an evening stroll. In Goulburn, thanks to what is being called Australia’s largest solar lighting installation, locals can now more easily walk and cycle their way to the salutary effects of a daily jaunt.

The faucet of federal funding for the future hydrogen economy keeps on flowing today as Minister for Education Dan Tehan announced $4.9m in funding for the development of the ARC Training Centre for the Global Hydrogen Economy. The announcement comes on the back of the establishment of the UNSW’s Hydrogen Energy Research Centre, a university-to-industry institute.

The University of Newcastle’s development of world-leading printed solar technology has taken a massive step toward rapid commercialisation with its first public display. Due to the technology’s panoramic applicability, this day may very well be looked back upon as the day the very world as we know it changed, and changed for the better. 

A couple of years ago NSW was pilloried as the laggard state in Australia’s renewable energy transition. Today it is the only state to have acted on the concentrated benefits of renewable energy zones as outlined in AEMO’s Integrated System Plan. Matt Kean’s latest announcement capitalises on developer enthusiasm for NSW’s first wildly successful REZ proposal.

New research from Cornwall Insight Australia suggests that the transition to renewable energies in New South Wales needs to pick up the pace quick-smart if it is going to cover the soon-to-be-revealed gap made by retiring coal generators.