New South Wales

The Australian arm of Philippines-based clean energy company AC Energy has commenced construction of a 50MW/50MWh battery energy storage system that will be connected to its 720MW New England Solar Farm being developed near Uralla in northern New South Wales.

Green Gravity, a startup proposing to use old mine shafts for gravitational energy storage, has raised $1.4 million in its first formal capital raise. The company, headed up by former BHP executive Mark Swinnerton, is now finalising its concept engineering in preparation for its demonstration plant. “I think we’re going to get the ‘and’ here,” Swinnerton told pv magazine Australia, referring to the technology’s potential to provide low cost firming (and more) by using yesterday’s infrastructure to solve today’s problem.

Chinese inverter brand Sungrow has signed a 79 MW inverter and 176 MWh battery energy storage contract with Sydney-based hydrogen battery company Lavo. The contract will see Sungrow add its storage solution to 16 mid-scale solar farms in Victoria.

The New South Wales government has announced plans to use part of an estimated eight million square metres of public school roof space to install rooftop solar PV as it seeks to test the most effective ways to generate, store and export renewable energy into the state’s electricity grid.

Two new solar farms in regional New South Wales are now delivering clean energy to the National Electricity Market with e-commerce giant Amazon announcing its first Australian utility-scale renewable energy investments and are now operational.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales have made a major breakthrough in what was previously conceived of only in theoretical terms, namely, ‘night-time’ solar power.

With Australia’s presence felt strongly at the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam last week, state governments are working to secure European markets through partnership agreements. Yesterday, New South Wales signed an initial agreement with Denmark which will see the distant pair support one another on matters of decarbonisation technology and trade. Just a few days earlier, Queensland’s government signed an MoU with the Netherland’s Port of Rotterdam to collaborate on opportunities to develop a hydrogen export supply chain.

A solar panel incorporated portrait by Jude Rae of Australian scientist, inventor and author Saul Griffith was listed among the finalists of the 2022 Archibald Prize. The portrait embodies Griffith’s renewable energy message to Australia – “Electrify everything.”

Origin Energy has secured planning approval for a 700MW/2,800MWh grid-connected battery to be developed at the site of its coal-fired Eraring power station in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

With global demand for both large scale and distributed battery energy storage on the rise, Australian battery manufacturer Energy Renaissance has reaffirmed its commitment to produce a lithium-ion storage solution using Australian suppliers and components.