Oceania

With technological progress, falling costs, and favourable subsidies all incentivising Australian households to replace serviceable modules and upgrade their rooftop array, a stockpile of useable second-hand modules is mounting. But efforts to embrace reuse rather than refuse are taking shape.

China’s coal crunch looks set to see the nation turn to the Australian coal it has kept stranded via its year-long unofficial import ban. The news isn’t great for CO2 emissions, but could ease the significant impacts being felt by the Chinese solar industry.

The proposed $3.5 billion Marinus Link interconnector between Tasmania and the Australian mainland has reached a significant milestone with “critical” environmental referrals being lodged with the federal and Victorian governments.

Australian miner Northern Star Resources has partnered with independent power provider Nomadic Energy to more than triple the capacity of the solar farm at its Carosue Dam gold mining operation near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Australian renewable energy developer BE Power will continue to progress plans to construct a 400 MW pumped hydro storage project near Toowoomba in southeast Queensland after the local government authority gave the project its tick of approval.

Fortescue Future Industries has revealed plans to develop a 1 GW solar PV module manufacturing plant in Australia after confirming it had acquired a 60% stake in Netherlands-based renewable energy specialists High yield Energy Technologies Group.

With some of the world’s largest solar PV module manufacturers warning of looming panel shortages, Australian researchers have declared a new generation of cheap, sustainable and efficient solar cells is now a step closer.

Victoria’s Hobsons Bay City Council is powering ahead with plans to establish a virtual power plant, confirming the installation of a combined 4 MW rooftop solar PV system across more than 40 council-owned buildings has begun in earnest.

Singapore-based VFlowTech has secured funds to scale up manufacturing of its vanadium redox flow batteries. The company currently offers three modular products that can be scaled to multi-megawatt-hour systems.

On Monday, an Australian–Japanese consortium announced plans to potentially develop a $1 billion plus ‘low emissions’ hydrogen project in Western Australia. The announcement was preceded by a year of gas companies loudly declaring schemes to blend hydrogen into their pipelines. Clearly, many powerful Australian are putting their money on a like-for-like transition. pv magazine Australia spoke to hydrogen experts Andrew Horvath and Scott Hamilton about how they see the hydrogen wave evolving, and why a clean swap is unlikely.