Australia is doing its best to help fulfil International Energy Agency predictions of a global boom in heat pump uptake, with the latest national data showing a 70 per cent jump in installations of the technology that promises a cheaper and more efficient way of heating water and homes. In its second Quarterly Carbon Market…
The local government-backed not-for-profit group behind Victoria’s first inner-urban community battery has turned to solar powered public transport to raise awareness of the vital role that shared energy storage can play in the shift to renewables. The Yarra Energy Foundation last year led the installation of a 110kW/284kWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) in…
Tesla has narrowed down the timing of the arrival in Australia of its hotly anticipated new home battery, telling local installers to expect to start taking orders for the Powerwall 3 in late 2024. Tesla hosted its first ever Australian Installer Day last month in Sydney, giving the industry hands-on access to the suite of…
La Trobe University has announced plans to install what it claims to be the largest “urban solar farm” in Victoria, a 2.9MW PV ground-mounted array and 2.5MW battery (energy storage duration not stated), which will take the total solar generation at the Bundoora campus to 5.8MW. The $10 million La Trobe Renewable Energy Zone will…
Telecommunications giant Telstra says it has signed a deal to take half of the output of a new 120 MW solar farm that is being built in Queensland, its fifth such agreement with large scale renewable projects. Telstra has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to the Munna Creek solar farm that is being built…
Rooftop solar PV continued its middle-of-the-day challenge to the operations of the world’s biggest isolated grid – the South-West Interconnected System in Western Australia – on Monday, sending minimum demand to a record low as it posted a record 76 per cent share of total generation. The new bechnmark came after consecutive weekends of 74…
The latest data released by key energy market institutions shows that the near standstill on new large scale renewable energy projects has continued into the new financial year, with no new solar projects registered in the first two months of 2023/24. The slowdown in new project approvals and financing in the fast half of 2023…
A new home energy management “ecosystem” has been launched in Australia, promising to optimise solar and battery savings by monitoring and automating the use of household appliances, including scheduled electric vehicle charging. Nasdaq listed Maxeon Solar, a spin-off from SunPower in the US, says its SunPower One suite of products and services is now available…
Amber’s Tim Barson on how home batteries are turning into a money spinner. Plus: Rooftop solar shattering records across the grid. You can find previous episodes of the Solar Insiders podcast here or on your favourite podcast platform. Pylon is a proud sponsor of Solar Insiders. nextracker is a proud sponsor of Solar Insiders….
Europe’s largest concentrated solar thermal project has been commissioned in Belgium with a solar field peak yield of 2.7GWh thermal power and storage capacity of 5MWh thermal power. Global packaging and materials manufacturer Avery Dennison officially commissioned the project built in collaboration with CST expert Azteq and long-duration thermal storage provider EnergyNest. A total of…
Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) and Dutch research institute AMOLF announced last week that they have fabricated a multijunction solar cell with a record efficiency of 36.1%. The two research institutes presented the new record at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) in Lisbon late last week, believing it…
A two-way electricity tariff being trialled in New South Wales is delivering a daily profit to one Northern Sydney solar household, peaking at times at $20 a day and making the purchase of a Tesla Powerwall battery a no-brainer. The trial, a collaboration between distribution company Ausgrid and retailer Amber Electric, offers households on the…