Oceania

The Australian arm of Philippines-based clean energy company ACEN Corporation has pressed go on the 400 MW Stubbo Solar Farm to be built near Dubbo in the New South Wales central west.

Australian electricity retailer Flow Power has officially entered the Queensland market, inking an offtake deal with German-owned renewable energy developer Wirsol Energy for 30 MW of clean electricity generated at the 89 MW Clermont Solar Farm.

The New South Wales government will stage a competitive tender to secure at least 600 MW of long duration storage as well as 380 MW of firming capacity as the state looks to fill the gap created by the impending closure of the country’s biggest coal generator.

Australian green hydrogen developer Fortescue Future Industries and Italian gas and electricity giant Enel are set to partner on making green hydrogen cost-competitive with fossil fuel alternatives this decade.

French renewables developer Neoen has credited the Victorian Big Battery with almost tripling its storage revenues in the first nine months of 2022. To September, the company’s revenues totalled $547 million (USD 347.4 million), with growth in solar and wind revenues paling beside the massive surge from battery storage.

The New South Wales government has formally declared the state’s third Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). The South West REZ, as its called, is centred around the towns of Hay and Balranald in the state’s western Riverina region, with initial expressions of interest in the zone attracting up to 34 GW of generation proposals – more than 13 times the intended capacity of 2.5 GW.

Western Australia’s largest virtual power plant, the government-support Project Symphony, is live. The project is particularly noteworthy for its introduction of new markets to reward different services and its use of Dynamic Operating Envelopes.

Australian headquartered mining giant BHP has signed a 70 MW baseload renewable energy contract with Neoen to meet 50% of its Olympic Dam mine operations in South Australia.

If the hydrogen economy was fuelled by announcements, it would be booming. In reality, little has come to operational fruition yet. More alarmingly, there is a complete “void of activity” in the Australia’s crucial early stage industry development, BayWa r.e. Australia’s Dr James Hamilton tells pv magazine Australia. “We’ve got a lot of ground to make up and if we don’t acknowledge that, we’re not going to make that ground.”

Australia’s two dominant tracker companies, Nextracker and Array Technologies, are launching terrain following products which the companies claim mitigate, sometimes even eliminate, the need for earthworks on site, opening up a host of previously unsuitable land for solar. Nextracker has just completed its first terrain-following project in Australia, with Array Technologies’ line set for delivery in the second half of 2023.