Australia

As 2019 enters its final quarter, the solar industry continues to face headwinds, even as the markets for solar deployment in Europe, the United States, and Australia remain strong. Paula Mints of SPV Market Research takes us through what to expect up until 2021.

Solar project milestones helped Neoen achieve a marked profit boost in the first half of 2019, culminating in the addition of more than 1GW to its clean energy portfolio.

A failure to design an energy system fit for the 21st century could put Australia’s clean energy transition at risk, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has warned.

Macquarie Group intends to build a 20GW renewables pipeline over the next five years through its Green Investment Group (GIG), the green finance bank it purchased from the British government in 2017.

Bitcoin and the solar energy industry are increasingly intertwined. For instance, buying solar panels with bitcoins is becoming easier. Several businesses, such as gogreensolar.com, AM Solar, and Spendabit, offer complete solar panel kits and accept bitcoin as payment.

GE Renewable Energy has been chosen to supply a massive battery for the 200 MW Solar River Project in South Australia.

Australia’s Northern Territory has unveiled a new target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in a policy document that touts solar and backs a proposed 10GW/20-30GWh solar-plus-storage plant earmarked to provide energy to the region and Singapore.

Victoria has launched solar guidelines for installations larger than 1MW in a bid to ensure ease of connection and mitigate impacts on the environment and farming.

The Australian Energy Market Operator constrained the output of several large-scale solar plants by 50% on Friday, in response to voltage fluctuations in a 220 kV network spanning the states of Victoria and New South Wales.

Global solar investor Foresight Group has continued its charge into the Australian PV market, launching a sustainability framework to finance small-scale renewable infrastructure projects in the country.

The Australian Capital Territory government has announced the final step of the first phase of its ‘reverse auction’ programme, with the announcement of a tender for 250MW of renewable energy generation alongside a 20MW/40MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).

Australia’s Clean Energy Council (CEC) has issued a stark warning over an apparent collapse in new investments into renewable energy projects.

French developer Neoen wants to build an energy superpark in South Australia that comprises 1.2GW of wind, 600MW of solar and 800MW of battery storage capacity.

On August 9, a thunderstorm caused 1.5 GW of generation capacity to go offline within seconds in the U.K. The incident caused millions of households to temporarily lose power but the situation could have been considerably worse if not for the country’s battery storage reserves.

Australia needs to drastically overhaul its power market in order to harness and benefit from the country’s skyrocketing rooftop solar and battery market, according to the Clean Energy Council (CEC).