Oceania

New South Wales electricity distributor Ausgrid has added another centralised community battery to its portfolio, powering up a combined 10 MW energy storage system in the southwest Sydney suburb of Bankstown.

Australia’s national science agency has launched a major revamp of its renewable energy research facility in Newcastle to provide new capacity for researchers and industry to test how technologies such as solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles can integrate reliably into the grid.

UNSW researchers have developed an intrinsic-adjusted single-diode model that explicitly accounts for radiative and Auger recombination, improving I–V curve accuracy and reducing root mean square error by up to a factor of three. The model is claimed to better predict performance near open-circuit voltage and maximum power point.

Australian Solar Enterprises has submitted plans for a new large-scale solar and battery project in Queensland for federal environmental approval, saying the 400 MW solar farm will utilise a ground-mounted racking system that eliminates the need for concrete foundations and permanent footings.

Sporting footwear and apparel giant Nike has unveiled a world-first rooftop solar “swoosh” with a 1 MW solar array now installed atop the company’s 60,000 square metre logistics facility in Victoria.

Despite the project already being altered four times, a local South Australian council has formally opposed the Blanche battery location as the state licensing process continues.

Macquarie-backed Aula Energy has supercharged its renewable energy ambitions with the acquisition of five utility-scale solar farms in Australia and a development pipeline of up to 800 MW of co-located battery energy storage projects from British-owned developer Lightsource bp.

Perth-headquartered resources and technology company Australian Vanadium Limited’s subsidiary VSUN Energy will partner with Japanese manufacturer Sumitomo Electric Industries in its bid to develop Western Australia’s planned 500 MWh Kalgoorlie vanadium battery project.

An Australian research team has developed a five-step, rule-based method that detects and classifies underperformance in PV systems using only AC-side inverter data. Validated across more than 1,000 systems, the approach offers a low-cost, low-intervention solution for improving reliability, fault response, and PV system performance.

Australia leads the world in rooftop solar penetration. More than four million homes now generate power from their own roofs, and battery uptake continues to accelerate nationally. This is a triumph for clean energy, and a global example.