Solar PV

The South Australian government has inaugurated its landmark $100 million Home Battery Scheme, which will subsidize the cost of buying a home energy storage system for up to 40,000 South Australian households. A nine-week priority period has been given to locally made battery systems, with Germany’s sonnen as the first provider to enjoy this benefit.

The Victorian government has allocated another $2 million in funding for Australia’s renewables-powered electric vehicle ultrafast charging stations, as the first charging site was unveiled at Euroa.

Sydney Water’s Bondi sewage pumping station will soon be storing solar energy through the use of 30 kWh of sodium-ion batteries, a cheaper alternative to the traditional lithium-ion batteries.

The bottler of the iconic beverage brand in Australia, Coca-Cola Amatil, is set to roll out 3.5 MW of rooftop solar across its operations in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. The solar arrays are forecast to cut the company’s annual energy costs by up to $1.3 million.

Despite political hurdles in key markets including China, India and Japan, Asia-Pacific remains highly active. This year, 59 GW of solar is expected to be installed and due to further system price declines, a phase-out of subsidy schemes can be offset.

Melbourne-based energy tech startup GreenSync has officially launched the Decentralized Energy Exchange (deX), a digital marketplace for grid services provided by rooftop solar arrays, battery storage and EVs owned by Australian homes and businesses.

Know for its blockchain-based P2P platform that allows energy trading between households, the Perth-based company is now launching a new token designed to provide retail investors with the opportunity to fund and generate revenue from shared renewable energy infrastructure.

Independence Group is set to add to a 6.7 MW solar PV array to its existing diesel power station at the Nova mine in Western Australia. Remote power generation specialist Zenith Energy has been contracted to deliver the solar project, in what will be Australia’s first fully-integrated commercial hybrid diesel/solar PV facility.

The 30 MW / 30 MWh Ballarat Battery Energy Storage System has been officially commissioned by the Victorian Labor government, as the first of the two grid-scale batteries that will provide support to the Victorian grid by the start of this summer.

The project will use solar and wind to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, which will be then be stored across the Jemena Gas Network in New South Wales. The $15 million trial will be half-funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.