Forget toilet paper, Australians are panic-buying PV
Byron Bay-based solar retailer Smart Energy says it is seeing an unprecedented surge in sales and enquiries for solar and home energy storage as consumers look to shore themselves up in uncertain times.
Amazon signs solar deals in Spain and Australia
Chinese PV heavyweight Canadian Solar has announced an offtake deal for its Gunnedah solar project with e-commerce giant Amazon in the Australian state of New South Wales. The e-commerce giant also plans to build a 50 MW solar plant near Zaragoza, in eastern Spain.
Stanwell’s utility-scale green hydrogen plans get financial shot in the arm
A feasibility study will explore a new option for producing and using renewable hydrogen, with the help of funding provided by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). If the study supports the business case, the project will deliver the largest hydrogen electrolysis plant in Australia.
Australian researchers push boundaries on tandem solar cells
Scientists at Australian National University have achieved a 27.7% efficiency rate for mechanically stacked perovskite-silicon tandem cells.
Australian government redirects funding for Energy Transition Hub
The Australian federal government said last week that it will curtail funding for the five-year Energy Transition Hub research initiative.
AE Solar enters Australian market, introducing new module features
German-headquartered module manufacturer AE Solar is looking to enter the Australian market in 2020. It has begun accrediting its module range with the Clean Energy Council and believes its Supreme modules, which are resistant to shade and hot spots, will attract installers.
Bushfire-affected South Australia homeowners to get free sonnen batteries
The state government has partnered with the German energy storage company to offer 188 families locally assembled sonnenBatteries as they rebuild their homes.
Australia’s AEMC rejects new rule for calculating transmission losses
The Australian network regulator has ignored pleas from some of the biggest solar and wind project owners in Australia to change the way marginal loss factors (MLFs) are calculated. While it has acknowledged that transmission has failed to keep pace with renewable energy investment, it did not offer any suggestions on what should be done to ameliorate the problem.
International consortium claims 25% efficiency for perovskite CIGS solar cell
Researchers led by Belgian institute imec claim to have achieved the result with a 1cm² perovskite tandem solar cell. The result tops the 24.6% efficiency the consortium announced in September 2018. The cell’s developers are now aiming for 30%.
Why go solar? We can think of at least 333 reasons
Australian researchers have compiled data from 173 studies which examined homeowner behavior when buying rooftop PV and identified 333 predictors related to the attitude, knowledge, tendency, awareness, willingness and intent of householders.
