Oceania

As Australia accelerates its shift toward renewable energy, attention has largely focused on generation – scaling solar, deploying storage, and integrating distributed energy resources. But a quieter constraint is emerging beneath this transformation: the grid’s limited ability to see its own condition in real time.

New Zealand’s electricity authority has updated its rules to better enable grid-scale and residential solar energy systems to supply local networks, and requires lines companies to set a default export of 10 kW for household solar and battery systems.

Australia’s rooftop solar market has surged 19% in the past month with the latest data revealing a record 341 MW of small-scale rooftop PV capacity was registered across the country in March as consumers also raced to install battery energy storage systems.

Aggreko has unveiled plans to build what it says will be Australia’s biggest off-grid renewable hybrid power facility after signing a long-term power purchase agreement with the owner of Queensland’s largest proposed copper mine.

New research from the University of New South Wales shows that PV module degradation varies widely with system design and location, driven by UV exposure, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric conditions. Tropical and desert regions face the highest stress, highlighting the need for climate-specific testing and system design.

Most of Australia’s existing homes are old, uncomfortable, and expensive to run. Too many are energy inefficient, and rising electricity and gas prices are making things worse. Mainstream programs are supporting home energy upgrades but the transition isn’t happening quickly enough and risks leaving behind the households that could benefit most. New research shows how local initiatives can make solar and electrification more accessible.

Output from Australia’s utility-scale solar assets jumped almost 22% in the past 12 months with new data showing the country’s large-scale PV assets generated 1.82 TWh of clean energy last month.

Scientists at the Australian National University claim that TOPCon cells are rapidly closing the open-circuit voltage gap with HJT counterparts, now under 10 mV, while offering greater wafer tolerance and high industrial scalability. Despite slightly lower efficiency, TOPCon-based perovskite/silicon tandems can achieve a levelised cost of energy comparable to HJT-based tandems due to reduced fabrication costs, according to the researchers.

The war on Iran has made crystal clear how shaky our reliance on fossil fuels is. It’s no surprise electric vehicles and transport have become more appealing. In Australia, sales of electric vehicles surged 40–50% in March.

Spark Renewables has secured final state planning approval for a solar and battery project that will add 800 MW of PV and 356 MW / 1,574 MW of energy storage capacity to the grid in the New South Wales Riverina region.