Oceania

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.

Sun Cable’s troubled $30-plus billion (USD 20 billion) mega solar and storage project has received a welcome boost with resources company Tivan announcing it has penned a deal with the developer for the potential offtake of up to 300 MW of renewable electricity to support a planned critical minerals processing facility in the Northern Territory.

French power electronics specialist Schneider Electric has announced the Australian launch of a new electric vehicle charger that incorporates new features aimed at making at-home charging easier to install and more cost-effective to use.

A Victorian solar installer that ignored a seven-metre fall risk on a job site in Geelong has been convicted and ordered to pay almost $40,000 after pleading guilty to three charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Three years after French renewable energy developer Neoen first broke ground at the site of its Western Downs Green Energy Hub in Queensland’s Western Downs region, the last of the more than one million panels has been installed as the 400 MW solar farm nears 100% completion.

Virtual Power Plants, or VPPs, are relatively mature in Australia due to the country’s high penetration of, and familiarity with, distributed energy resources. But claims of VPP success and participation may be overblown, with a considerable gaps between the numbers some platforms are claiming and the realms of possibility.