New South Wales

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization plans to use its Newcastle Energy Centre – home to the largest high-concentration solar array in the Southern Hemisphere – as a demonstration site for its newly announced net-zero emissions targets.

The operators of Australia’s largest solar farm have turned to a software-based bidding solution as they seek to optimise dispatch and manage the facility’s market trading and power purchase commitments amid increasingly market volatility.

One of the country’s most electricity-intensive smelters plans to switch to renewable energy, a move which would drastically reduce its footprint and will send a clear message to generators that even if the federal government continues to support coal, Australia doesn’t.

Photon Energy’s Leeton and Fivebough Solar Plants have been commissioned after just under a year of construction. The two plants’ 14.6 MWp combined output is a positive sign for the Riverina region with its strategic importance to the renewable energy transition, and an achievement for Amsterdam-based Photon Energy.

As Australia’s most populace state, New South Wales, prepares to put out its hydrogen strategy roadmap later this year, the state is planning to use hydrogen to power its public transport fleets and will soon launch a digital collaboration portal.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales will look to improve the quality of advanced solar PV cells after the project secured a share of more than $1.5 million in the latest round of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage Project Grants.

Sydney-based MSquare Energy says it has ambitions of becoming Australia’s largest solar panel manufacturer. It is entering the market at a pivotal moment when Australia’s panel manufacturing industry is pushing to compete on equal footing with global leaders.

The University of Wollongong has secured $5 million in federal government funding to establish a renewable energy focused training centre which will address the “complex and challenging issues” currently limiting the growth of renewables, including solar PV and wind energy in Australia.

Burning biomass – essentially, wood – is defined by the Australian government and the United Nations as a renewable energy source. As Australia’s hydrogen pipeline balloons, projects proposing to produce the ‘future fuel’ by burning waste wood have begun to appear. It’s a model that has immediate benefits, complicated drawbacks and significant carbon emissions along the way.

Australia’s first lithium-ion battery manufacturer, Energy Renaissance, has received a half million dollar grant to develop its pilot manufacturing facility in the state’s Hunter region.