Oceania

The Clean Energy Regulator has confirmed it has approved enough capacity to meet the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET). While this is a great achievement for the renewables industry, the question remains what comes beyond 2020. Although analysts expect a slow down, ANU researchers find the record installation rates will see Australia surpass the scrapped target of 41,000 GWh of renewable energy generation around the end of 2020.

Wind gives you beer, or is it vice versa? Wellington brewery Garage Project has teamed up with New Zealand’s (NZ) leading renewable energy generator, Meridian, and to celebrate being the first certified renewable energy product in NZ the brewer has launched Turbine Pale Ale, inspired by Wellington’s iconic Brooklyn wind turbine.

Auckland’s electricity and water utility companies have announced a project to build New Zealand’s largest solar array, which will be situated atop a wastewater treatment pond.

Two major solar panel manufacturers are looking to expand their presence in Australia with new distributors on board.

Deliveries of Electric Vehicle (EV) maker Tesla’s best-selling Model 3 sedan have finally started in Australia, over 18-months after the EV’s first launch in the U.S. The belated runout is another boost to the accelerating EV industry in Australia.

Only hours after the release of the boosted September allocation of rooftop PV rebates, Solar Victoria’s application portal crashed, leaving applicants frustrated.

The Australian Renewable Energy Arena (ARENA) has approved up to $9.41 million in conditional funding to Hazer Group for the construction and operation of a groundbreaking hydrogen production facility in Munster, Western Australia. The project is utilizing biogas produced at the treatment plant as feedstock to produce hydrogen and graphite.

Universities from South Australia to Queensland are embedding renewable-energy technology in their operations and teaching. Last week, the University of the Sunshine Coast in collaboration with Veolia introduced a cold-water tank — effectively a 7 MW battery — to the range of innovative options for reducing electricity costs and the carbon footprint of large, energy-hungry institutions.

Despite what Rystad Energy analysts describe as “a few teething issues” caused by the rapid uptake of solar PV, and renewables in general, in Australia and Vietnam, the flow of proposed utility-scale solar projects in both countries looks set to continue over the coming few years.

The New South Wales (NSW) Government has declared TransGrid’s proposed 900km interconnector from South Australia (SA) to NSW to be a project of Critical State Significant Infrastructure (CSSI). This signifies a strong boost to the dearth of transmission infrastructure revealed by the rapid growth of renewables, particularly solar PV.