Western Australia

WA continues to work through its precise roadmap to manage the state’s vast distributed rooftop solar resources and enable further uptake of renewable generation. Pre-Christmas, Western Power is seeking to engage private enterprise in providing a value stack of storage services.

Oz Minerals has long said that it was looking at a hybrid fossil fuel-solar-wind solution to power its massive West Musgrave Project. This week the miner has announced that it is now developing a roadmap to power the project with 100% renewables with the addition of a battery in what the company says could be one of the world’s largest fully off-grid renewably powered mines.

Western Australia’s McGowan Government has released a ‘Just Transition’ framework for the town of Collie, a town which has been at the centre of the state’s energy generation for a century. With the rise of renewables spelling the end of coal, the Government is looking to support the town as it seeks to reinvent itself in this ‘crucial phase’ of the energy transition.

As part of the Western Australian Government’s WA Recovery Plan, $6 million in funding was provided for a Smart Energy for Social Housing program. The program, which should see 500 properties fitted out with solar systems, got underway recently with the first 10 homes already basking in summer savings.

Engie and ammonia producer Yara have published findings from their long-awaited feasibility study into the development of renewable hydrogen and ammonia at Yara’s Pilbara Fertilisers plant. The study has led to development plans for large-scale renewable hydrogen and ammonia development with the first phase, a 10 MW solar farm and electrolyser, already instigated.

A Hybrid Systems Australia solar and battery energy storage microgrid at Tellus’s remote Sandy Ridge hazardous waste clean up facility means that the project runs off 100% renewable power in daylight hours.

Onslow, a tiny coastal town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia known for its cattle farms and gold mines, has this week been recognised for having one of the world’s most advanced microgrids.

The Western Australian Government going to provide a temporary royalty rebate scheme for three lithium producers and their employees are who struggling in the face of low prices. Prices have fallen for the first time since 2014 as spodumene concentrate supply is being oversupplied in advance of the electric vehicle and energy storage boom which hasn’t quite hit yet.

A collection of mining companies, industry bodies and union groups have been announced as the members of the Future Battery Industry taskforce, the Western Australian McGowan Government’s unit designed to grow the value chain of critical minerals for the energy storage industry for domestic use and export opportunities.

Western Australia’s long-awaited Climate Policy has landed with somewhat of a whimper, nevertheless, there is something to be said of its investment in the uptake of electric vehicles, including what is to become Australia’s longest EV charging network. Nevertheless, there is perhaps something more to say about how dovish this policy is in regards to some of the world’s largest emitters being harboured in Western Australia.