Oceania

Former solar installer Gavin Brady has been convicted by a Victorian magistrate after an investigation by the Clean Energy Regulator found he falsely claimed to have installed 11 solar systems. When converted to Small-scale Technology Certificates, those false claims were worth $50,000 (USD 35,500).

The Australian Capital Territory government has officially switched on its first grid-scale battery energy storage system, describing it as a “significant milestone” on Canberra’s pathway to 100% renewable electricity supply.

Australia’s renewable energy transition has prompted the construction of dozens of large-scale solar farms. The boom helps reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels, but requires large areas of land to be converted to host solar infrastructure.

Just weeks after announcing its intent to build a $300 million (USD 210 million) lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Victoria, Australia-based Recharge Industries is reportedly considering a bid for the collapsed UK battery company Britishvolt that could revive plans to construct a battery cell gigafactory in northern England.

A new code for retailers of ‘new energy tech’ products including rooftop solar, battery energy storage systems, electrical vehicle chargers and other emerging energy products and services has been introduced to raise consumer protection standards in Australia.

Japan’s largest oil company, Eneos, has opened a green hydrogen demonstration plant at Bulwer Island in Brisbane. While the scale of the project is relatively small, producing just 20 kilograms of green hydrogen a day, Eneos Senior Vice President Yuichiro Fujiyama says the company will expand the project’s scale “in near future.”

CleanPeak Energy, who have until now specialised in the C&I segment, have acquired the 13 MW Mugga Lane Solar Park in Canberra. CleanPeak reportedly bought the solar farm for between $30 million (USD 21 million) and $40 million, after it was placed into voluntary administration following a loan dispute.

A Victorian-based startup which claims to have developed a hydrogen enhancement kit that injects hydrogen into existing diesel engines to reduce diesel use, has begun the production of 10 commercial-ready systems. It will do field testing with the systems on sites of potential customers.

Sun Cable, the company behind the world’s largest solar and storage project, has officially gone up for sale after entering voluntary administration in January. Its administrator, FTI Consulting, is seeking binding offers of acquisition or recapitalisation by the end of April with a deal to be finalised by May’s end.

Last year was a tricky one for solar, with each segment from residential to commercial to utility behaving quite differently. The industry trends have been laid out in Sunwiz’s latest Australian PV Report and pv magazine Australia takes a dive into what happened and what there is to learn.