Oceania

Western Australia utility Horizon Power has achieved a major milestone with the coastal town of Onslow powered 100% by solar PV and battery during a successful trial of what is one of Australia’s largest distributed energy resource microgrids.

Australia’s bid to establish itself as a major green hydrogen player has triggered a flood of state funding and new project announcements in recent months. But consultancy Rystad Energy sees potential obstacles for the nascent industry.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures has started building a 5 MW solar-storage hybrid power plant near Dalby, southern Queensland.

Italy’s Enel will launch an experimental agrivoltaics program at its 34 MW Cohuna Solar Farm in the Australian state of Victoria to help formulate a “best practices” template for utility-scale solar PV sites in other countries.

Q Cells Australia says many residential solar customers are contemplating exiting the grid entirely as policymakers grapple with how to integrate small-scale renewables like rooftop solar PV and batteries into the electricity system.

Energy efficiency, electrification of heating and transport, and the provision of clean cooking facilities are all going in the wrong direction as the Covid crisis deprived millions in sub-Saharan Africa of electricity use, according to a report by the IEA, IRENA, WHO, World Bank and UN Statistics Division.

The state government in Queensland, Australia, has announced plans to finance design work and cost-related studies for the construction of a new pumped hydro facility.

RayGen Resources has secured funding to build a 3 MW/50 MWh ‘solar hydro’ power plant that could become one of the largest, lowest-cost storage projects in Australia.

Defect engineering for silicon heterojunction solar cells has come a long way. But Matthew Wright, a solar researcher at the University of New South Wales, asks whether these proven efficiency gains could be applied more effectively.

Solar and microgrid specialist Hybrid Systems Australia has revealed plans to establish the “world’s biggest” standalone power system manufacturing facility in Western Australia.