South Australia

Construction of a new $2.3 billion electricity interconnector that will link the South Australian and New South Wales energy networks is expected to commence early this year following the South Australian Government’s approval of the project’s Environmental Impact Statement.

As Australia stares down a deluge of worn out solar panels, recycling – and indeed upcycling – programs are grinding into gear. In Victoria, a site has been found for Australia’s first facility to recover and reuse solar module materials, while Reclaim PV has extended its manufacturer partner and pickup location lists.

Building on our previous Chart of the week in October, where we reviewed the first couple of weeks of 5-minute settlement, we wanted to revisit this topic. Now two months in, we take another look and see how well the fastest responding assets in the NEM are capturing the best prices in the 5-minute market.

Swiss multinational commodities trader Trafigura and its majority owned metals manufacturing business Nyrstar have unveiled plans to construct a $750 million hydrogen manufacturing facility at the Port Pirie smelter in South Australia.

The energy transition and innovation arm of Italian energy company Enel Group is set deliver its first battery energy storage system in Australia, a “landmark project” which it said will help South Australian water utility Central Irrigation Trust “intelligently manage” its energy use.

Sydney-based solar pioneer 5B has today announced it will acquire IXL Solar’s Adelaide-based manufacturing business, with pv magazine Australia told the purchase will see 5B buy everything but the name, effective immediately.

Batteries in South Australia have been paid to charge throughout September and October 2021 due to a record number of negative price intervals. Wholesale electricity prices were negative almost 40% of the time.

Simply Energy on Thursday announced it will be extending its Virtual Power Plant program across the eastern seaboard and opening it up to five different battery brands. Simply Energy will continue its technology partnership with SwitchDin to do so, with Ryan Wavish, Simply’s General Manager, and Andrew Mears, CEO and founder of SwitchDin, telling pv magazine Australia they plan to introduce a whole range of new, more advanced features into the VPP as the relationship between the two companies evolves.

Western Australia has become the second state to give network operators the capacity to remotely switch off residential solar systems as an emergency grid stability mechanism.

AGL has “broken ground” at Torrens Island power station in preparation for the construction of its 250 MW/250 MWh battery which has drawn interest for being the largest planned grid-forming battery in the world.