Oceania

Australia’s most renewable state has signed a joint funding deal with the Commonwealth Government that hypes gas production, and downplays its considerable renewable-energy benefits.

Annual battery storage installations will exceed 10 GW/28 GWh in 2021, following a particularly strong year in 2020, despite the challenges created by the global pandemic, writes IHS Markit analyst Mike Longson. Combined solar and storage will be a core focus for new deployment in 2021, as the front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter energy storage markets are both expected to grow significantly in the months ahead.

SCA Property Group has revealed plans to commence installing solar PV energy systems on the rooftops of some of its $3.5 billion shopping centre portfolio as it looks to establish itself as one of the biggest renewable energy generators in the Australian retail property sector.

The Australian arm of German renewable energy specialist juwi has added another off-grid solar PV project to its burgeoning portfolio, announcing it will construct a 13 MW solar farm at the site of the Gruyere gold mine in Western Australia.

Solar glass developer ClearVue Technologies has once again looked beyond the Western Australia horizon by inking a distribution agreement with Japanese company Tomita Technologies which will see its building integrated PV (BIPV) glazing products sold in Japan.

The joint feasibility study between Australia and Germany, HySupply, to determine the viability of a renewable energy-based hydrogen supply chain between the two countries, has progressed again after global firm RWE Supply & Trading and Australian-based The Hydrogen Utility signed a Memorandum of Understanding which could see green ammonia exports from South Australia to Germany’s LNG Terminal in Brunsbüttel.

Complaints including a lack of women’s hygiene facilities and a precariously dangling shipping container are being taken up by the NSW and ACT Electrical Trades Union after workers say they’ve been met with deaf ears by the company managing the site of the Suntop Solar Farm in NSW’s Central West.

Australia’s transition to renewable energy continues with developer ARP Australian Solar pushing ahead with plans to establish a 70 MW solar PV and battery energy storage project on the outskirts of Morwell in the heart of Victoria’s coal country.

Construction is set to commence on the 250 MW Kidston Pumped Hydro Storage Project later this month after developer Genex Power announced it had secured all the financing required to progress the $775 million project.

South Australia’s electricity distributor SA Power Networks has announced plans to introduce new ‘flexible’ export limits for rooftop solar PV in some areas of the state in a bid to manage the growing amount of distributed energy resources and associated network congestion.