Oceania

The rapid build out of a large pipeline of utility scale PV projects around Australia could stretch the experienced installation labour force, threatening quality. Solar industry veteran and the Managing Director of PI Berlin Lars Podlowski made the warning as the company expands into Australia through its acquisition of quality assurance provider SolarBuyer.

AEMO has revealed that soaring rooftop solar in Western Australia is presenting state-owned gentailer Synergy with a quandary, as PV meets expanding volumes of daytime electricity demand while economic hardship is causing record numbers of non-PV households to have their electricity cut off.

The PV-powered Byron Bay Railway is facing a legal challenge, which threatens to shut down the 3km tourist train only six months after its opening.

With scorching summer temperatures set to hit major cities in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales this weekend, large scale battery storage has become a major focus of the electricity reliability debate. The Smart Energy Council’s John Grimes says that South Australia’s leadership has been key in to the shift.  

Fast increasing power prices in Western Australia are set to feed the already “buoyant” residential PV sector, leading suppliers are reporting. The WA government is winding back electricity subsidies in an attempt to repair the state’s budget.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is continuing to foster utility scale PV growth in Queensland, providing $55 million in non-recourse project finance to the Oakey 2 Solar Farm. Canadian Solar will supply modules for the project and will also serve as EPC.

Australians continue to see fostering solar PV, wind and other renewables as the leading environmental issue. And that a national renewable energy target is the best policy mechanism to do it.

The modern PV industry has lost one its pioneering researchers. The University of New South Wales’ Stuart Wenham died on Saturday December 23, after having being diagnosed with a malignant melanoma in September. He was 61 years old.

Looking back on an unprecedented year for Australia’s renewables sector, when it was never far from mainstream headlines, 2017 may very well be the watershed year for the industry. And it is the states, rather than the federal government, which have taken the lead.

South Australia’s water utility will install a trial floating PV array on its Happy Valley Reservoir. The 100 kW system will be installed in 2018 and is a part of the utility’s plans, announced today, to reduce its net electricity costs to zero by 2020.