Victoria

Melbourne’s City of Boroondara council has ordered a homeowner to remove rooftop solar panels on a street-facing facade due to the building’s position in a heritage overlay. In 2021 the City of Boroondara declared a climate emergency and called for a tripling of rooftop solar in the municipality. The homeowner described the decision as “ridiculous.”

With architects and construction companies across the world showing an increasing interest in building integrated PV, one Australian company has outlined plans to clad an eight-storey building being constructed in West Melbourne with a “solar skin” that will generate almost all of the building’s base power.

The Victorian government has announced a multi-million-dollar expansion of its $11 million Neighbourhood Battery Initiative after what is being described as the state’s “first inner-urban” community battery energy storage system was switched on in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

Australian engineering firm UGL has begun building the 125MWp Glenrowan Solar Farm in Victoria’s northeast after solar-focused developer Esco Pacific announced it had finalised the sale of the project to Australia-based contractor Cimic Group.

A parliamentary committee has recommended the Victorian government explore options to allow greater integration of distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar PV into the grid as climate activists urge the state to ramp up its renewable energy ambitions.

One of Australia’s largest regional cities has signed a long-term power purchase agreement with Victorian network operator AusNet Services’ independent subsidiary Mondo Power as part of plans to install solar PV arrays on 90% of city-owned buildings in less than four years.

Chinese inverter brand Sungrow has signed a 79 MW inverter and 176 MWh battery energy storage contract with Sydney-based hydrogen battery company Lavo. The contract will see Sungrow add its storage solution to 16 mid-scale solar farms in Victoria.

The proposed 240 MWp/480 MWh Mornington big battery project being developed by solar and energy storage specialist Maoneng on Victoria’s coast is a step closer to realisation with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) providing grid connection assessment approval.

Victoria’s Deakin University will spearhead what it claims will be the largest recycling and clean energy advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Australia after securing $50 million in funding through the Federal Government’s $242.7 million Trailblazer Universities Program.

As people have gradually migrated to the world’s cities, urban areas have migrated upward to scrape the sky. And yet, while one of the first principles of power generation is to generate as close as possible to the point of consumption, energy systems have long been designed to deliver electricity to major cities from distant hubs. But now, thanks to recent advances in solar panel energy density and building-integrated PV, vertical cities could soon be standing tall under their own power.