Green finance innovation caters for ‘Virtual Storage’ market
Hydro Tasmania and buyers Macquarie Group and ERM Power have signed a ‘Virtual Storage’ deal which will see the pumped-hydro company sell the rights to its highest priced periods of ‘discharge’ and buying a fixed MW block of low-priced ‘charge’. The innovative contract is the product of the ARENA-funded Renewable Energy Hub.
SEC forges ahead with green hydrogen certification scheme in bid to catch global wave
As the Smart Energy Council prepares to rollout the first pilot of its green hydrogen certification scheme, CEO John Grimes and consultant Scott Hamilton detailed the international discussions informing its architecture and what’s at stake for Australia’s export future.
Renewables service 70% of WA’s electricity needs the majority of the past week
Western Australia has seen around almost three quarters of its midday summer electricity demands being met by solar and wind generation in five of the past seven days.
VIC Govt funds experiment to test benefits of solar in orchard farming
Unlike other nations with more limited land and faster growing populations, Australia has not yet understood the symbiotic benefits which accrue when solar PV and agriculture are combined. This week, the Victorian Government announced its Horticulture Solar Energy program and $5 million in funding for the Tatura SmartFarm to experiment with solar atop a pear orchard.
WoodMac predicts 30% drop in Asia Pacific front-of-the-meter battery costs by 2025
A new report from Wood Mackenzie suggests costs of front-of-the-meter battery storage systems in the Asia Pacific region could decline by 30% by 2025. The declining costs are already having a palpable impact as 2021 has opened with a slew of large-scale battery project announcements.
A duck for coal generators in VIC as twin outages failed to register through strong solar
Two outages at coal fired power generators in Victoria last weekend failed to faze the energy market as strong solar uptake ensured wholesale prices actually fell into the negative despite major units going offline at the height of summer.
100 MW battery storage facility proposed for rural Queensland town
A large-scale battery energy storage system is being proposed by Sydney-based developer Genex Power near Rockhampton, Queensland.
Greening WA’s mines: first round of grants awards two mines $2.6 million to install solar
The Western Australian state government has awarded $2.6 million in grants to install solar power at two Goldfields mining projects.
Biden’s Senate majority doesn’t just super-charge US climate action, it blazes a trail for Australia
An aggressive US climate policy rollout could provide a much needed dose of reality to the climate discourse in Canberra. It may also prompt Australia’s major parties to acknowledge the inevitability of a transition to a zero carbon economy.
Focus on industrial processes key for Aussie mega solar, wind projects to become a reality
2020 was the year for mega-solar projects to strike record low prices – US$0.0135/kWh in Abu Dhabi for the unimaginably vast 2 GW Al Dhafra project. Not to be left behind, some Australian project developers are pursuing equally grand plans with cleantech guru Michael Liebreich saying that their likelihood for success will lie in what the proponents plan to do with the vast amount of clean, cheap energy.
