Victoria

Australian energy major AGL is pushing ahead with plans to transform its Loy Yang power station site in Victoria into a clean energy industrial hub, announcing it has signed a deal with Solar Recovery Corporation to explore the feasibility of establishing a PV panel recycling facility at the site.

GemLife, which describes itself as “luxury resort living for the over-50s,” has set up its own Virtual Power Plant (VPP), and is set to invest $75 million in coming years to rollout the VPPs across more than 10,000 homes in its property portfolio on Australia’s east coast.

The Victorian government has signed off on a preferred development plan for the contentious VNI West transmission project that will connect the Victorian and New South Wales electricity grids and promises to unlock upwards of 3.4 GW of new renewable generation capacity.

The rise of rooftop solar in Victoria will see all new inverters installed under the state government’s solar and battery rebate programs soon required to be technically capable of remotely updating and enacting dynamic export limits to allow network companies to manage the export of rooftop solar back in to the grid.

Victoria’s newly released state budget includes $1 billion (USD 670 million) for the resurrected government energy outfit, the State Electricity Commission, almost $200 million for clean energy education, as well as funding to streamline critical minerals projects and to install 100 new neighbourhood batteries.

Chinese inverter and storage company Sungrow and Australian developer Green Gold Energy have signed an agreement to collaborate on “at least” 500 MWh of battery storage projects within the next three years – most to all of which will be DC-coupled. Relatively new to Australia’s grid-connected battery landscape, DC-coupled batteries will soon be able to trade on lucrative FCAS markets thanks to imminent rule changes, providing a firmer foothold for the technology in Australia.

Construction of the South Australian section of the $2.3 billion (USD 1.56 billion) EnergyConnect infrastructure project, which will link power grids across three states, is now more than 50% complete with ElectraNet announcing the high-voltage interconnector is on track for release of full power transfer capability by mid-2026.

The Victorian government has launched a market search for what is to be the first large-scale renewable energy project to be developed under the resurrected State Electricity Commission that will invest an initial $1 billion towards delivering 4.5 GW of renewable energy capacity.

Solar and battery retailers in Victoria will have to abide by a new consumer protection standards after the state government announced it will mandate a new stronger code that builds on the previous guidelines and expands them to include new energy technology including electric vehicle chargers.

Greek renewables developer Mytilineos has acquired a 15% stake in the Rosedale Green Hydrogen project, which aims to build a 800 MW solar farm next to a 560 MW hydrogen production plant at roughly the midpoint between Melbourne and Sydney on a major trucking corridor.