Oceania

Australia has recorded its 4 millionth rooftop solar installation, maintaining its status as a world leader with 25 GW of total capacity, surpassing the amount of nationwide coal generation.

Solar cell technology innovator SunDrive Solar will join forces with Chinese PV manufacturing giant Trinasolar to develop “cutting-edge” manufacturing facilities and bring Australian-made solar panels to market at scale.

Australia’s BT Imaging will supply its advanced photoluminescence (PL) imaging tool, LIS R3, for Emmvee’s 1.5 GW TOPCon solar cell manufacturing facility in India.

Economic cooperation between India and Australia may open doors for investment in clean energy technology but challenges still abound in a competitive global market. Vibhuti Garg and Shantanu Srivastava, of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, discuss the role that public funding and resource pooling could play in supporting manufacturing ambitions.

As rooftop solar racks up records in Australia, price cannibalization has resulted in a “struggling” large-scale market segment. Bruce Mountain, head of the University of Victoria’s Energy Policy Centre, says that increasingly depressed wholesale electricity prices during the day are squeezing out big PV.

Ark Energy’s 275 MW/2,200 MWh lithium-iron phosphate battery to be built in northern New South Wales has been announced as one of the successful projects in the third tender conducted under the state government’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap. The Richmond Valley Battery Energy Storage System will likely be the biggest eight-hour lithium battery in the world when it is completed.

Australia’s United Solar Group has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 700 MW of floating solar and a 1.5 GWh battery project in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka.

Data shows a sharp increase in the number of fires caused by the DC isolators that separate the grid from solar panels. ABC News gathered state-by-state data revealing a dramatic increase in fire incidents in the last 12 months.

Brookfield and Reliance have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the production of solar panels, long-duration battery storage, and other renewable energy equipment in Australia.

Over the next five to 15 years, batteries will undercut the business case for major transmission and interconnector projects. These assets will nonetheless likely be built, decreasing price spreads and eating into the revenues of batteries, predicts analyst Warwick Johnston.