Oceania

Australia’s largest rail infrastructure project, the 1,700-kilometre Melbourne – Brisbane Inland Rail freight line, has made the switch to solar to power its signalling systems with the move expected to deliver an estimated $25 million (USD 16.93 million) in cost savings.

Construction has been completed on what is, for now, New South Wales’ largest battery system. The 150 MW / 300 MWh Riverina and Darlington Point energy storage systems are made up of three co-located units and owned by private equity fund manager Federation Asset Management and Edify Energy.

The Albanese Labor government has delivered its 2023 – 2024 budget, placing energy front and centre. The budget takes the government’s total spend on making Australia a renewable superpower to $40 billion (USD 27 billion). While many in the industry have applauded the budget, there are some glaring contradictions.

University of New South Wales researchers have identified four failure modes caused by damp heat in heterojunction solar panels with a glass-back sheet configuration. The failures could result in power losses ranging from 5% to 50%.

Australia recently hit it first gigawatt of big battery storage, with another 40 GW in the projected pipeline. During the Smart Energy Conference, Marija Petkovic, founder and managing director of Energy Synapse, looked at what we’ve learned so far.

Chinese inverter and storage company Sungrow and Australian developer Green Gold Energy have signed an agreement to collaborate on “at least” 500 MWh of battery storage projects within the next three years – most to all of which will be DC-coupled. Relatively new to Australia’s grid-connected battery landscape, DC-coupled batteries will soon be able to trade on lucrative FCAS markets thanks to imminent rule changes, providing a firmer foothold for the technology in Australia.

There were an estimated 100 million individual solar panels in Australia at the end of 2022. We estimate this number will likely grow to over 2 billion if we are to meet Australia’s 2050 net-zero emissions target. This growth means Australia is facing a 450,000-tonne mountain of used PV panels by 2040.

Construction of the South Australian section of the $2.3 billion (USD 1.56 billion) EnergyConnect infrastructure project, which will link power grids across three states, is now more than 50% complete with ElectraNet announcing the high-voltage interconnector is on track for release of full power transfer capability by mid-2026.

Australia is at risk of over-mining key transition minerals by relying on “overblown” demand assumptions, according to a new report which warns policy steps to encourage responsible and sustainable use of critical minerals, such as improved battery recycling, are being ignored.

Chinese solar and storage technology manufacturer Sungrow has strengthened its commitment in Australia, inking new distribution agreements that will deliver at least 550 MWh of the company’s energy storage system solutions and 250 MW of its inverters into the Australian market.