Oceania

Australia’s energy sector is undergoing a notable shift with new data from market analyst Sunwiz showing a record surge in utility-scale battery energy storage projects over 10 MWh in 2023 while residential and commercial installations also reached new highs.

The first in a series of gigawatt-class battery energy storage projects set to be rolled out across the National Electricity Market is on track to be fully operational by August 2025 after Australia’s market operator granted the technical green light for the Waratah Super Battery.

A team of scientists in Australia claim to have achieved the highest efficiency reported to date for a perovskite-CIGS tandem solar cell built on a flexible steel substrate. In the proposed cell configuration, steel can act as both a substrate and an electrode.

With renewable energy capacity in Australia expected to at least double over the next six years, the search for land to host solar, wind and energy storage developments is offering a new income stream for interested landowners.

Fortescue has officially opened its 2 GW hydrogen electrolyser manufacturing facility Gladstone and followed that by confirming plans to establish a 50 MW green hydrogen production plant at the central Queensland coast site.

Three sleeping solar farm beauties in the Top End may receive the kiss of life with Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler indicating the government could buy them from their owner, but questions remain about grid stability.

Fortescue has missed a deadline to reach financial close on a green hydrogen project in Queensland that is key to Genex Power’s proposed Bulli Creek solar and big battery development, but there are other names on Genex’s dance card if the deal falls through.

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) sits at a crossroads. It is considered a mature form of deep storage due to its components being firmly “de-risked” but few projects are operating in the Western world. A project in the remote New South Wales town of Broken Hill promises to lead the way.

The Ballarat Energy Network is on track to decentralise the regional city’s electricity network with a long-term view to supply the Victorian community’s 120,000 residents with 100% renewable energy generated by local distributed energy resources.

Solar farms in New South Wales led the way for Australia’s utility scale PV energy output in a record-breaking month of March, generating 670 GWh of clean energy to drive all Australian large-scale PV and wind generation up 17% on the same time last year.