Australia

Australia’s PV module supply landscape could experience a supply shock as legislation emerges to stamp out the use of forced labor. Chris O’Brien, VP for the APAC region at Maxeon Solar Technologies, says that measures that have left modules stranded at the U.S. border could very well occur in Australia soon.

Chemical engineer Rose Amal arrived in Australia from Indonesia 38 years ago to study at UNSW. Now her leadership and research are contributing to a new sustainable economy for Australia and clean fuels for energy-hungry industries.

Closed-loop pumped-hydro storage offers more chances to minimize environmental effects on water sources and overcomes the problem of finding suitable sites. According to an Australian research team, closed-loop systems could prevail on open-loop systems in the future and this trend is confirmed by another group of scientists from the United States.

Australia’s clean energy transition is set to accelerate in the coming years with a new report suggesting that most Australian homes and businesses will have switched to PV modules paired with batteries by 2030, giving the nation the highest per capita penetration of renewables in the world.

Australian Vanadium Ltd. has appointed a Western Australian engineering company to begin the first stage of what it says will be the country’s first vanadium electrolyte manufacturing plant.

Energization testing is set to resume this week for Neoen’s 300 MW/450 MWh Victorian Big Battery, following a fire that caught global attention and destroyed two of its Megapacks on July 30.

The Australian Energy Regulator has filed a lawsuit against the Hornsdale Power Reserve, which is owned and operated by French renewable energy developer Neoen, over claims that it failed to provide the grid security services it was paid to deliver.

A new paper from the University of New South Wales underscores the urgent global need for tens of terawatts of PV to replace fossil fuels by 2050. The researchers say it’s time to focus on the most sustainable technologies, before reserves of silver, indium and bismuth dry up.

The Australian-Singaporean group behind a proposed 20 GW solar PV farm and 42 GWh battery energy storage project under development in Australia’s remote far north has hinted that other, similar-sized projects are already in the pipeline.

Rio Tinto has confirmed that Energy Developments Ltd. is set to start construction of a new PV array and battery storage system that will more than triple the generation capacity at the miner’s AUD 2.6 billion ($1.9 billion) bauxite mining operation at Weipa, in the Australian state of Queensland.