ARENA

Photon Energy Australia has won the developers race to the long-awaited Lord Howe Island integrated solar and storage project. The Netherlands-based company’s microgrid solution is perfectly suited to remote islands looking to relieve themselves of diesel dependency.

One of Australia’s largest solar farms, APA Group’s 110 MW (AC) Darling Downs Solar Farm has officially opened after significant delays resulting from grid connection issues and last-minute changes of engineering and construction partners.

A result of a collaboration between global accounting and financial services firm KPMG, Canadian gas giant ATCO, Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), H2City can be used to assess the costs and benefits of regional town or municipality switching to hydrogen.

Australia’s rooftop PV has become the country’s biggest potential energy resource. To harness it requires that millions of household and commercial generators cede control of their hard-won, sunny patch. A new research entity has been launched to understand energy consumers’ passions and motivators, and facilitate a fair and equitable social contract — no pressure!

Hydro Tasmania has released a white paper pushing the island state’s claims to become the Battery of the Nation via upgrades to the Victoria-Tasmania interconnector, an effort to unblock the backlog of solar and wind.

With ARENA’s help, Mirvac is set to trial a net zero energy community of townhouses in the Melbourne suburb of Altona North.

The Clean Energy Council (CEC) has released an extensive report on the benefit of sharing options for renewable energy projects. In addition to highlighting the benefits of sharing for both project proponents and local communities, the report provides pathways to models of benefit sharing.

On the back of a landmark agreement with Alinta Energy, Fortescue Metals will use solar power for up to 100% of its daytime energy needs at the Chichester Hub iron ore operation in the Pilbara region.

ARENA’s round of funding for renewable-energy forecasting technologies, initiated in early 2018, is coming to fruition, with wide-ranging benefits for solar farm earnings and the stability of a low- to no-carbon NEM. 

Up to $20 million of grants will be awarded for microgrid feasibility studies across Australia through the first round of the Federal Government’s Regional and Remote Communities Reliability Fund. The fund aims to provide more secure, affordable and reliable power to regional communities and save “hundreds of millions of dollars” on network upgrades.