New South Wales

The 90 MW West Wyalong Solar Farm has become the latest addition to the swelling solar PV pipeline in the Riverina region having secured the NSW Government’s approval.

Three NSW government facilities for aquatic and agricultural research and development are reducing their grid-dependence by utilising solar PV.

Adelaide-based energy storage specialist 1414 Degrees has announced plans to acquire SolarReserve Australia II, which owns the Aurora Solar Energy Project in South Australia and two solar sites in New South Wales. The company proposes to use the Aurora site to build a massive 400 MW solar farm with progressive thermal storage capacity to several thousand MWh.

The University of Wollongong’s Sustainable Buildings Research Centre has become the first building in Australia to achieve full marks under the world’s toughest sustainability standard for buildings, the Living Building Challenge. With 468 solar panels to support net-zero energy, an onsite rainwater system to enable net-zero water performance, and use of environmentally safe and reused building materials, the building is a demonstration of the value of the research the SBRC team carries out. 

Under the Electricity Strategy released on Friday, the NSW Government has unveiled a plan to deliver Australia’s first coordinated Renewable Energy Zone in the Central-West, seeking to support the new generation needed to get energy bills down. The administration has also pledged to give NSW one of the world’s highest reliability targets to cope with the changing electricity mix and unexpected generator outages.

The Sydney-based developer has received credit approval to fund two of its solar projects. The announcement comes only days after Genex resumed trading on the Australian stock exchange in the wake of the Northern Australian Infrastructure Fund’s decision to extend offer of funding for the 250 MW Kidston pumped storage hydro project.

There’s no shortage of action in the New South Wales renewable-energy scene, with some 19.4 GW of large-scale renewable energy projects approved or progressing through the planning system, and around 2.5 GW of grid-scale solar under construction. Plus there’s 2 GW of generation and 175 hours of storage planned for the pumped-hydro project known as Snowy 2.0 – and that’s just what’s happening at the big end of town.

Photon Energy Australia has won the developers race to the long-awaited Lord Howe Island integrated solar and storage project. The Netherlands-based company’s microgrid solution is perfectly suited to remote islands looking to relieve themselves of diesel dependency.

French renewables developer and big Australian energy player Neoen has reported strong revenue growth over the first nine months of 2019, driven in no small part by Australian successes.

Across Australia shopping centres are starting to realise their expansive car parks are the perfect solar farms. Not only do the centres get solar energy at peak times, but customers can avoid the real threat of car-related bodily burns by parking in the shade of a solar array.