Victoria

Australian property investor and developer Cbus Property has revealed plans to clad a $1 billion commercial office tower being developed in Melbourne’s CBD with a ‘solar skin’ capable of generating 20% of the project’s base building electricity requirements.

Buildings in the City of Melbourne could provide 74% of their own electricity needs if solar technology is fully integrated into roofs, walls and windows, new research from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science has found.

Embarrassing Australia on the world stage is one of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s favourite marketing ploys. But while the federal government continues to fail its constituents, particularly those in rural communities, those rural communities themselves are taking the energy transition into their own hands, along with the ownership of their own solar generation.

Victoria’s electricity transmission network looks like it will be soon be owned by Canadian asset management group Brookfield, after the consortium upped its offer yesterday.

Australian natural gas and electricity company, APA Group, is set to build a 88 MW solar farm at Mica Creek in Mount Isa, central Queensland. The news just as APA was confirmed to have lost its bidding war for Victorian transmission network AusNet.

Hydrogen vehicle maker H2X has today announced a deal with Gippsland Circular Economy Precinct which will see the pair manufacture a range of hydrogen-focussed products in Victoria’s Gippsland region. The move comes less than a week after Pure Hydrogen bought a significant stake in H2X Global.

Australian clean energy investment firm Providence Asset Group will roll out hydrogen-lithium battery technology at its solar farms after partnering with the Commonwealth Bank to fund a portfolio of 10 community-based solar plants in regional Victoria as part of the group’s larger ambitions to develop up to 40 ~5 MW solar farms across the eastern states.

Renewable generation is now the cheapest source of electricity, but for many C&I users accessing green energy is a complex proposition. The Victorian Government wants to retain and attract more businesses, build more renewable energy, create more jobs — is a market facilitation platform the next piece of the puzzle?

A Victorian solar installer has been fined $500,000 for a string of workplace safety breaches, including a 2019 incident where a worker suffered serious injuries after falling through a skylight.

Against the backdrop of a second Victorian reverse auction for renewable energy, German-owned developer Wirsol takes up a large-scale solar project in the border city of Wodonga.