Clean Energy Council

The number of Australian homes with solar PV systems installed on their rooftops has passed a two million milestone, show Clean Energy Regulator data. With an average of six panels installed a minute, the uptake shows no signs of subsiding.

The All-Energy Australia 2018 exhibition & conference kicked off in Melbourne today. Safety of products and quality assurance was prominent in discussions at the country’s largest PV conference and trade show in its early hours. Big funding announcements at the opening plenary made headlines.

As the debate heats up in the run up to Friday’s COAG meeting, the Victorian government has issued a last-minute call to redraft the proposed National Energy Guarantee (NEG), and the Australian Capital Territory has redefined its NEG approval conditions in regard to the emissions target. Meanwhile, Australia’s peak renewable energy bodies have taken opposing positions.

According to the latest statistics from the Clean Energy Council (CEC), there are 42 wind and solar projects totaling 6239 MW worth close to $10 billion currently in construction or due to start soon across Australia. The unprecedented large-scale renewables activity is, however, surrounded by growing uncertainty over future policy and regulatory change.

With an unprecedented rollout of rooftop solar reaching 1.1 GW and around 700 MW of large-scale renewable energy projects completed and connected to the grid, last year was an important turning point for Australia’s clean energy industry, shows the Clean Energy Council in its latest report. However, seven times bigger capacity of utility-scale projects with financial support or under construction at the year’s end is poised to eclipse 2017.

Large-scale solar’s rapidly falling costs has seen work on a record-setting number of projects get underway, worth some 2 GW of capacity. The Clean Energy Council’s Kane Thornton made the observation at its Large-scale Industry Forum in Brisbane yesterday.

The CEC has encouraged COAG Energy Council to support the further development of the proposed National Energy Guarantee (NEG) in its meeting on Friday. The peak renewables body’s support, however, is contingent on the policy being fleshed out, “and [it] addressing concerns in relation to the emissions target.”

As a part of its expanding quality and certification program, the Clean Energy Council has taken action to suspend or delist eight solar suppliers in the first two months of 2018. The action has applied to 156 PV module or inverter models, including Shenzhen Sofarsolar inverter 3000TL, which the CEC announced on Wednesday had failed testing.

As the deployment of large scale renewable energy projects picked up the pace in 2017, the 2020 Renewable Energy Target of 33,000 GWh has been put within reach. The Clean Energy Regulator has reported “a healthy surplus” of renewable energy certificates in the Renewable Energy Target market.

Last week the Clean Energy Council announced the winner of its 2018 Women in Renewables scholarship. Women in Renewables chair, Natalie Collard, reflects on why we need more women on boards.