Oceania

The Meekatharra Solar Consortium is a spirited community initiative in the West Australian Outback town of Meekathurra. The Consortium has installed solar PV across two turn-of-the-century buildings and intends to share the solar power with the community.

Professor Guan Yeoh is an essential part of a project to commercialise a solar polymer membrane called ‘Solar Skin’, which can generate energy from both direct and indirect sunlight and off both vertical and horizontal surfaces. The technology has the potential to transform every CBD and local government area into a solar farm. pv magazine Australia sat down with Professor Yeoh for a Q&A.

A new venture funded by the Cannon-Brookes family is looking to install stand-alone solar and battery systems at up to 100 sites around Australia affected by recent bushfires and floods.

Scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland have set a new world record for a quantum dot solar cell. The group fabricated a 0.1cm² device from perovskite and measured power conversion efficiency at 16.6%. The record has been verified by the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has approved the construction of a large-scale solar PV and battery energy storage system for its Koodaideri mine in Western Australia. When completed, the solar plant will be in the running for Australia’s largest PV installation at a mining site.

The PHASA-35 crewless solar and battery-powered aircraft completed its first test flight this week. The pioneering solar-powered aircraft could fill a niche as a cheap alternative to satellites.

PXiSE says its microgrid controller technology is successfully managing the output of a solar farm and a grid-scale battery in coordination with a gas power station in the coastal town of Onslow. It now readies for the next stages of deployment of its software solution across Horizon Power’s network.

Australian renewables developer Maoneng and Chinese module maker and EPC contractor Chint have mandated $200 million for an initial project as part of a series of utility-scale solar farms they aim to develop in Australia under a joint venture partnership.

An Australian-first solar to hydrogen-based microgrid for the World Heritage Protected Daintree Rainforest is another step closer to reality this week after Federal Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch revealed the feasibility study funded by the Federal Government last year is “on track”.

The Victorian government has decided to break away from national electricity rules and introduce legislation that will fast-track priority projects like grid-scale batteries and transmission upgrades and make room for more large-scale solar and wind on the grid. The announced reforms have prompted a flurry of reactions.