Australia

A new $139 million partnership with Bank Australia will allow the Sustainable Melbourne Fund to help all commercial and agricultural enterprises in Australia to become more sustainable. And for many businesses, reducing electricity costs and emissions through PV is at the top of their wish lists.

A new $200 million partnership with Bank Australia has boosted the capability of the Sustainable Melbourne Fund to help commercial and agricultural enterprises nationwide. For many businesses, reducing electricity costs and emissions through solar installation is the first project on their wishlist.

The German energy storage provider has begun shipping batteries made in the former Holden factory in the north of Adelaide to New Zealand. Sonnen batteries will be available exclusively through the manufacturer’s local partner, Taspac Energy.

Echoing a growing appetite for corporate renewable power purchase agreements in Australia, Ascham School has become the first in New South Wales to ink a long-term deal with commercial electricity retailer Flow Power.

Research by the University of New South Wales has examined the economic barriers, technologies and opportunities of recycling end-of-life silicon PV modules for profit.

Australia’s federal Labor party has pledged to roll out PV generation and batteries at schools across the nation, and to create VPPs supporting up to 365 MW of capacity.

A total of 238,000 advanced meters will be installed by utility Western Power on the state of Western Australia’s South West Interconnected System over the next three years. The move will unlock the benefits of a technology that gives consumers more control over their energy use. In another rollout, Horizon Power has made paying for power easier for 11 Aboriginal communities across the state.

Coming hot on the heels of major reports and a heated public debate about electric vehicles, a poll commissioned by the Climate Council has confirmed Australians believe electric cars are the future. Another poll, by The Australia Institute, has 50% of Australian voters supporting all car sales being electric by 2025.

The world had more than half a terawatt of PV generation capacity at the end of last year as emerging solar markets picked up the slack caused by Beijing’s subsidy about-turn to the tune of a 20% rise in installations outside China.

First-quarter data from Green Energy Markets shows double the uptake of small-scale rooftop solar on the same period last year as record numbers of residential and business consumers seek to reduce electricity bills. A tendency for installations to increase toward the year end suggests more than 2 GW of solar will hit the rooftops this year. But could this become a cautionary tale?