Australia’s most iconic building has marked World Environment Day with a series of sustainability announcements, including contracts to source wind and solar power from major projects in the state of New South Wales.

The Chinese electrical equipment giant will build the first project of Simec Energy Australia’s landmark $1 billion, 1 GW dispatchable renewable energy program in the state of South Australia.

Among 45 critical energy technologies and sectors assessed in a tracking report by the International Energy Agency, only seven are keeping hopes alive that climate, energy access and air pollution goals can be met.

Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and Canada’s University of British Columbia have announced a memorandum of understanding aimed at accelerating clean hydrogen technologies.

Renewable energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, will overtake spending on oil and gas exploration and production by 2020, finds Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. And Australia is set to emerge as one of the leading investment destinations.

Households in the Australian state of Victoria can now sign up for sonnenFlat, an energy plan that offers a guaranteed annual energy allowance including solar, storage and grid energy usage for a fixed fee.

A tracking report from five major international agencies finds the world is lagging behind sustainable development goals for 2030. While more effort is needed to reach some of the world’s poorest populations, though, notable progress has been made in reducing the electrification deficit, thanks to off-grid solar and minigrids.

As India awaits the results of the world’s largest democratic election on Thursday, and the EU begins to go to the polls on the same day, pv magazine Australia considers the “miracle” victory by a right-wing Liberal-National coalition in Australia at the weekend, and finds the nation’s solar sector has little reason to rejoice.

As Australia’s federal election campaign slowly grinds to a halt, one thing is indisputable: Climate change has emerged as the make or break issue in this year’s election. The main parties have come up with a wide range of policies, but some of them are more supportive of the green energy sector than others.

With the annual cost of energy rising per bed across Australia’s aged care sector, C&I PV and energy-efficiency specialist Verdia says that a major energy transformation is taking place throughout the country.