Oceania

The Victorian government has unveiled an ambitious plan to install 100 battery energy storage systems in neighbourhoods across the state by the end of 2026 as part of a broader strategy to support the rollout of more rooftop solar PV as it targets 95% renewables by 2035.

Australia’s Origin Energy is the target of an $18.4 billion (USD 11.3 billion) takeover bid by a consortium led by Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management which plans to divide the business and invest another $20 billion by 2030 to support the gen-tailer’s transition to clean energy.

Queensland-based independent power producer ReNu Energy and aspiring green hydrogen manufacturer Countrywide Hydrogen will seek to advance its renewable hydrogen projects from concept to production after Australian superannuation fund HESTA agreed to invest up to $100 million (USD 64 million) to develop the facilities.

Corporations in the Asia-Pacific region are set to contract a record 7 GW of renewable capacity in 2022, according to a new report by Wood Mackenzie. Solar accounts for 57% of the region’s contracted corporate renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) to date. India, Australia and Taiwan account for 89% of overall capacity in the region.

The Northern Beaches Council in Sydney is seeking expressions of interest from organisations able to set and and run a group Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), for its local businesses. The aim is to aggregate local businesses to collectively scale up their PPA buying power and cut time, complexity and associated costs.

Developer Energy Estate has signed a deal with Abergeldie Complex Infrastructure, which has designed vertical manmade caverns for hydrogen storage. Energy Estate co-founder Simon Currie says the partnership is about shoring up projects like its proposed 1.6 GW Hunter Hydrogen Network.

A 10 MW/20 MWh battery energy storage system associated with a Victorian wind farm has be commissioned by Ingeteam at the Queanbeyan substation in the Australian Capital Territory.

A new scientific paper takes a closer look at the record-breaking efficiency that Australia’s Sundrive announced for a silver-free heterojunction cell in September 2021, as certified by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research.

Australia has paid just 38% of its “fair share” towards the internationally agreed climate finance target. The revelation speaks to the issue of fairness – a key topic at COP27, currently underway in Egypt. But Australia’s premier renewable energy event offered little hope that questions of equity and deep sustainability are being considered here, even by the architects of our own transition.

ARENA has awarded global technology company Calix $947,035 (USD 612,509) to help fund an eleven-month study into the feasibility of deploying the company’s proprietary Zero Emissions Steel Technology (ZESTY) at a demonstration plant – something both Calix and ARENA are touting as a pathway to green steel manufacturing using hydrogen in Australia.