Oceania

Australia’s largest energy retailer, AGL, is working towards net-zero emissions by 2050 but it can not come soon enough for some with new government data revealing the energy giant is the nation’s biggest polluter, emitting more than 42 million tonnes of carbon emissions in the past year.

A “tidal wave” of new solar and wind energy in Australia is poised to wipe out several coal-fired power stations in the National Electricity Market (NEM) with a new report suggesting the financial viability of the fossil-fuel generators will be so severely compromised within five years closure will become an attractive or even unavoidable choice.

Construction has commenced on the 300 MW / 450 MWh Victoria Big Battery storage facility near Geelong after the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) provided French renewable energy developer Neoen with a $160 million funding injection.

With rooftop solar installations numbers hitting record highs right across the nation, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has announced new technical standards for inverters will be introduced to help the electricity grid cope with the influx and provide system strength.

With rooftop solar surging, smart power electronics will be required to secure system strength and ensure that new limitations on rooftop PV don’t put a break on growth. Italy-based power electronics supplier FIMER believes its new range of string inverters are well equipped to do just that, as explains Fimer Australia and New Zealand’s Jason Venning and Warren Merritt.

Gransolar’s battery division, E22, will reportedly develop 13 large-scale batteries in South Australia, Victorian and NSW.

Blue NRG, a business-only electricity retailer, has decided to partner with Melbourne-based energy management platform carbontrack in a union that Spiros Livadaras, carbontrack’s Managing Director, admits is somewhat surprising. “Obviously people are saying, why would a retailer join forces with an energy management technology company that helps them reduce their energy consumption – it’s kind of counterintuitive,” he told pv magazine Australia.

The Queensland Government-owned energy company, Stanwell Corporation, has announced it is from today seeking expressions of interest from renewable energy projects to incorporate into its fossil-fuel heavy portfolio.

On the same day as Bluescope Steel announced massive profits and the creation of a new Chief Executive Climate Change, the steel giant also conceded that it was not fully committed to investing in ‘green steel’ solutions in the near future.

Faulty or failing rooftop solar systems are behind one in five enquiries made to Sydney-based retailer Solaray Energy, according to the company’s co-founder and director, Jonathan Fisk. “And it’s going to continue to accelerate,” Fisk told pv magazine Australia.