Western Australia

A state government-funded projects touted as Australia’s first industrial renewable energy microgrid is to be developed at a new 120-hectare industrial park in Nambeelup.

Australia’s Federal Government has given ‘major project status’ to ASX-listed Australian Vanadium’s namesake project located in the Murchison province in Western Australia.

Germany’s Juwi will take over the stalled Greenough River solar farm expansion in the wake of RCR Tomlinson’s collapse. The second stage involves construction of an additional 30 MW of solar PV at the site.

The Australian Renewable Energy Arena (ARENA) has approved up to $9.41 million in conditional funding to Hazer Group for the construction and operation of a groundbreaking hydrogen production facility in Munster, Western Australia. The project is utilizing biogas produced at the treatment plant as feedstock to produce hydrogen and graphite.

Copper miner Oz Minerals has announced its intention to source as much power as possible for its West Musgrave Project through solar PV and wind hybrid generation. The increasing cost of fossil fuels is driving many mining companies to seek renewable alternatives.

Western Australia’s government has announced two units at Synergy’s Muja Power Station will be retired from October 2022. The state government said the coal-fired units were only being used about 35% of the time thanks largely to rooftop solar reducing demand on the grid.

WA’s regional utility Horizon Power will supply homes and businesses that install rooftop PV and batteries with Secure Gateway Devices (SGDs) to allow for higher penetration levels in the northwest town of Onslow. Newcastle-based SwitchIn has been selected by Horizon to supply the SGDs.

Canadian gas giant ATCO has unveiled its Clean Energy Hub in Jandakot which will explore the potential of hydrogen for home use in gas appliances. On the same day, the Western Australian government has launched a renewable hydrogen strategy and announced the creation of a $10 million green hydrogen fund.

The proposal to build a solar farm on the site of the old South Fremantle tip has been given final development approval. Construction on the former landfill site, for which various redevelopment plans had been submitted since 1985, finally looks set to move ahead.

Western Australia utility Horizon Power’s Carnarvon Distributed Energy Resource (DER) PV trails have received the silver award in the Energy Smart Communities Initiatives (ESCI) Best Practice Awards in the category of Smart Grids. The award recognises the necessity of DER trailing in order to find better ways to integrate solar PV into regional locations.