Oceania

In a strongly-worded submission, two experts claim AEMO’s backbone interconnector proposed between Victoria and New South Wales is a “monumental mistake” and relies on analysis that is “biased, flawed and in parts dishonest.”

The Australian Energy Regulator has handed down its final decision on when electricity networks are permitted to impose zero export limits on rooftop solar systems. The answer: almost never.

Over the Easter weekend there were a number of different tasks to work through – including sorting out what to do about electricity supply at home. Understandably I drew the short straw on that task.

South Australian technology company EntX has been granted a license to explore salt deposits along the western side of the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia for the purpose of hydrogen storage.

Canadian-headquartered clean energy firm Amp Energy has secured the rights to develop a green hydrogen project with up to 5 GW of electrolyser capacity on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Amp has signed an agreement with iron ore miner Iron Road which owns the coastal site, including the Cape Hardy Port Precinct.

Australia federal Labor government has approved 11 new renewable energy and transmission projects in since the election in May 2022. There are currently another 95 renewable projects under assessment.

Seeking to commercialise hydrogen technology developed by the University of Western Australia, Perth-based Hazer Group has entered into a somewhat vague agreement with Japan’s Chubu Electric Power Company and engineering firm Chiyoda Corporation.

Australian renewable developer GMR Energy, formerly Maoneng, has started work on its 240 MW / 480 MWh battery project on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. The company has entered into an early works agreement with network AusNet, and is aiming to complete the $330 million (USD 220 million) by 2024, two years after the company had originally forecast.

Community opposition to renewable projects tends to be dismissed as NIMBY-ism, an attitude of not-in-my-back-yard. To do so fails to recognise the character and potential claws of the globally growing movement, as well as the renewable sectors’ own role in rearing resentments. Australian reporter Bella Peacock investigates the emotional thread that ties the particularities of opposition movements together, and ways developers can defuse the charge.

A South Australian racecourse has now become a fully operational DC-coupled solar and battery farm. The Berri Energy Project, owned by retailer Flow Power, is part of the company’s strategy to build up to 50 MW of mid-scale (sub 5 MW) projects to supplement its offtake portfolio, Flow Power COO Byron Serjeanston told pv magazine Australia.