Oceania

A parliamentary inquiry has been told Australia’s ageing transmission network “urgently” needs upgrading to deliver new solar PV and wind power to cities as the nation’s transition to renewable energy generation continues to accelerate.

The world’s biggest solar PV and storage project is set to get even larger with the Singapore-based Sun Cable announcing it plans to increase the renewable energy generation and storage capacity of the $26 billion Australia-ASEAN Power Link being developed in northern Australia.

The Energy Security Board’s market reforms have come under fresh scrutiny after ministers met last week under a veil of secrecy, apparently stirring deep rifts between federal and state ministers and other stakeholders. While it remains unclear what the Board’s proposed capacity market, dubbed by some as ‘coal-keeper’, might look like, Dan Cass, who leads energy policy at the Australia Institute, told pv magazine Australia as long as Angus Taylor isn’t steering, he’s optimistic that state governments and the ESB could work towards a reasonable outcome.

Australian electricity network owner Spark Infrastructure has accepted a $5.2 billion takeover bid from a North American consortium led by private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

For the first time in the history of our national energy market, solar generated more electricity than coal, providing 41.4% of the national market on Sunday, while coal accounted for 41.2%.

Two hydrogen platforms have launched in Australia to connect hydrogen producers with consumers, ultimately trying to catalyse projects and the industry more broadly. The first, NERA’s HyCapability, maps hydrogen capability across Australia, while the other focuses on New South Wales and the developments of its hydrogen hubs.

The comparison of two solar cladded roofs in Sydney, one bare beneath its panels and the other adorned with native grasses and plants, has found the panels on the green roof were, on average, 3.63% more efficient, producing an average daily output 13% greater than the conventional roof. The improvements are believed to stem from the lower temperatures on the green roof, thanks to its plants – which also provided a plethora of additional benefits.

The risks posed to renewable-energy projects by Australia’s uncertain climate change policies and hamstrung regulators, have become a concerning brake on investment. Adjusting settings to reduce those risks would revitalise investor sentiment and vastly reduce the cost of implementing the country’s switch to renewables, says the Clean Energy Investor Group.

Carbon never goes away, says Associate Professor Tianyi Ma, but if industrial carbon-dioxide emissions can be cleanly, renewable catalysed into chemicals and fuels that we need, we can reduce the overall GHG burden on the earth’s atmosphere.

Imperatives meet opportunity. Corporate and utility goals for sustainability are driving a new group of investors to pick up the Australian renewable-energy resource and run with it. A new PwC report outlines how the new investor-developer partnerships could work.