The booming large scale and rooftop PV market in 2018 is providing reasons to be optimistic about the future of solar under the Australian sun. Reflecting on his six-year tenure as CEO at ARENA ahead of his departure in August, Ivor Frischknecht points to the role the agency played in bringing down the costs of large scale solar as ARENA’s greatest achievement.

Research and development: Martin Green has attended the SNEC every year since its inception. During that time, he and his University New South Wales (UNSW) collaborators have driven a wide range of innovations within the Chinese and global PV manufacturing sector. Green, a Scientia Professor at UNSW and the Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics shares his take on PV technology in 2018.

Large-scale solar’s rapidly falling costs has seen work on a record-setting number of projects get underway in Australia in 2018 – 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 87 MW Beryl Solar Farm in New South Wales is set to become one of the first in the world to deploy First Solar’s Series 6 modules. The U.S. module manufacturer is the project developer, with Downer selected to commence construction in July.

Single-axis tracking technology will be deployed in the vast majority of Australian large scale solar projects currently under development. Rystad Energy made the observation in its latest research note, adding that at present two companies share 90% of the confirmed orders.

Green Energy Markets’ small-scale solar figures for April reveal that above 100 MW is emerging as the new normal for monthly installations in the segment in 2018. While the month was below the record-setting 127 MW in March, April’s 109 MW indicates that installations north of 100 MW is new normal for the Australian residential and small commercial sector.

SolarEdge has announced the launch of a new virtual power plant solution promising grid services and reducing the necessity for costly grid infrastructure investments.

Australia-based peer-to-peer (P2P) energy pioneer Power Ledger will partner with Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) to trial its blockchain-enabled platform. The limited trial will first involve only 10 homes in Osaka, however, Power Ledger says that Japan is an excellent fit for P2P energy trading.

Rooftop solar PV installation rates in Australia are breaking all previous records. March saw the highest number of rooftop systems ever installed in the country, worth a capacity of some 127 MW.

Analysis from Rystad Energy has revealed that sub-AU$60/MWh utility-scale solar projects could be viable in sunny parts of Australia today. The highly competitive EPC landscape has been identified as the major driver of the improving PV power plant economics although, as always, cost of capital remains key.