Oceania

The Australian arm of U.K.-based global fund manager Octopus Group and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation have added another renewable energy project to their joint venture’s portfolio, announcing they will work with the founders of the Blind Creek Solar Farm near Bungendore in regional New South Wales to deliver the 300MW agri-solar and battery project.

Electricity distributor Endeavour Energy has announced plans to deploy a solar-powered community microgrid featuring 3MW/3.5MWh of battery energy storage in a bid to improve the resilience and reliability of electricity supply for regional communities on the New South Wales South Coast.

AGL has committed to another big battery project as it seeks to add at least 850MW of new large-scale energy storage to its portfolio by 2024, confirming it will begin construction of a 50MW/50MWh battery at Broken Hill which will improve energy security in regional New South Wales.

The New South Wales Government is advancing its plan to build the “biggest network battery in the southern hemisphere” by 2025 as it looks to shore up a reliable energy supply ahead of the impending closure of the coal-fired Eraring Power Station.

Australia has one of the highest per-capita rooftop solar PV installation rates in the world with more than 16GW installed across more than 3 million households but the head of Australian research at U.S.-based analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast a drop off in new installations in 2022.

Pumped hydro energy storage is ideally positioned to support reliability and reduce volatility in the energy market as Australia shifts from fossil fuels towards renewable power with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull labelling the technology the “ultimate long-duration storage” solution.

The extensive power outages experienced in Western Australia last Christmas were a result of extreme weather rather than human failure, an independent review has found. The report’s author, AEMC’s Michelle Shepherd, notes such instances will likely become increasingly frequent with climate change.

Renewables developer FRV Australia has announced its 90MW (AC) Sebastopol Solar Farm located in grid-challenged south of New South Wales is now operating at 100% of its capacity.

Nextracker has today launched its new terrain-following, single-axis tracker built specifically for projects on sloped, uneven, and challenging sites. Nextracker believes its new NX Horizon-XTR line will be market-shaping, especially in countries like Australia where opposition to land disturbances of utility-scale solar is growing.

Following the early success of its solar integrated Gannawarra Energy Storage System, Edify Energy has again opted for Tesla Megapack as its preferred battery energy storage system for its combination of storage projects totalling 150MW/300MWh in the Riverina region of New South Wales.