Half of Victoria’s energy could come from renewable energy sources, as the Labor government has vowed to expand the state’ renewable energy target from 40% in 2025 to 50% in 2030, if re-elected.

The leading trio – China, the United States and India – will comprise 70% of the projected 552 GW of solar capacity, which will be added between end-2017 and 2027, finds Fitch Solutions, which has revised down its original forecast for solar capacity growth in China. The curbed growth in China, due to subsidy cuts and restricted access to the United States and India, is expected to squeeze domestic solar equipment manufacturers, but also lead to access to cheaper solar panels in other smaller markets.

After being commissioned in stages, the Bungala Solar Farm near Port Augusta in South Australia is now fully operational. At 220 MW/275 MWdc, Bungala is Australia’s largest solar farm completed to date.

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.

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.

Announcing the appointment a new managing director for Australia and Asia Pacific, thee German storage provider has confirmed it expects to produce the first batteries from its production line at the former Holden site in Elizabeth, SA, next month.

The 30 MW/30 MWh Ballarat Battery Energy Storage System, the first big battery brought online in the state of Victoria, has been officially commissioned by the Victorian Labor government, as the first of the two grid-scale batteries that will provide support to the state’s grid by the start of this summer Down Under.

After addressing grid connection challenges, the French energy giant has launched construction on the 256.5 MW Kiamal Solar Farm. It is now looking to add a second stage of up to 194 MW, and is exploring commercial options for the approved 380 MWh of energy storage.

For renewables to claim a more sizable share of the global energy mix, the adoption of energy storage would need to pick up pace and the rapidly increasing size of the EV fleet will offer a scalable way to ramp up such access, says Fitch Solutions.

An AUS$500,000 capital injection from the arms-length, state-funded renewable energy organisation takes to $800,000 the amount of public money which will be donated to a $1.74m project designed to make procuring clean energy easier for business and local authorities.