Oceania

The facility is expected to be located in the state of Ceará and to be powered by around 3.6 GW of wind and solar facilities located in the region. The project developer is Australia-based Enegix Energy.

Why do you almost never hear about prosecutions for illegal phoenix activity? Why do some Approved Solar Retailers behave so badly? And what remains of Australian solar’s cowboy history?

With reins tightly held by China, a handful of players are trying to prise the production of a core ingredient of lithium-ion batteries out of Goliath’s hand before the battery boom begins in earnest with the electrification of the transport sector. The head of one of those companies, WA start-up International Graphite, spoke to pv magazine Australia about the hunger of both investors and customers, and the surprisingly collaborative race to feed global demand.

As present affairs of state attest, sweeping things under the rug is the preferred strategy of the Morrison Government, and hence its $50 million investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS). According to a recently published report from IDTechEx, CCS faces a difficult few years and a long way to go. Unfortunately, even if he does reach its forecasted scale by 2040, its capacity to remove emissions from the atmosphere in any hurry is negligible.

Last month, the Australian Energy Market Operator imposed new obligations on utility-scale project developers in the National Electricity Market. These new obligations attend to the test requirements for simulation models in grid connection. Tony Morton, global technical head for power systems at Vysus Group, argues that these new requirements put a lot more work on project developers, but should provide greater certainty.

Renewable energy capacity in Australia is expected to double, or even triple, over the next 20 years. There is one oft-overlooked question in this transition: where will it all be built?

Less than two decades ago, South Australia generated all its electricity from fossil fuels. Last year, renewables provided a whopping 60% of the state’s electricity supply. The remarkable progress came as national climate policy was gripped by paralysis – so how did it happen?

Just as Australia thought it’s pioneering days were over, it has become the first country in the world to sell American giant General Electric’s new solar inverters.

Australia’s infrastructure advisory body has added a number of renewable energy-related projects to its priority list, recognising the need for investment in the “once-in-a-lifetime transition from thermal generation to intermittent renewables.”