Anyone who has done some investigation into having solar panels installed in Australia should by now understand that the whole endeavour only makes economic sense if the home in question […]
Abengoa feasibility study could pave the way for solar thermal with storage in Australia
Spanish renewable energy giant Abengoa has secured $450,000 in funds from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to conduct a feasibility study into building a 20MW solar thermal tower plant with […]
Government attacks Australian solar SMEs
The Murdoch Press are clearly well aligned with our Government’s transparent desire to destroy the renewable energy industry in Australia. Spouting the alarmist headline “Solar panels are time bombs”, the […]
Cape York to be home to Australia’s first solar-powered mining operation
The first large scale solar plant for an Australian mining operation is to be built at the Weipa bauxite mine and processing plant in north Queensland. The remote mining facility, […]
7 reasons residential solar power is so popular in Australia
Australia is one of the world’s leaders when it comes to rooftop solar power. Residential solar power has taken off in Australia in a way not seen in many other […]
IKEA’s new installations with Canadian Solar highlight growing Australian commercial solar sector
Signs are emerging that the Australian commercial solar market is finally taking off, with increasing numbers of businesses and councils signing up for rooftop PV; not least among them IKEA, […]
5MW off-grid solar PV plant by First Solar to power Australian mining operation
The first large sale solar array to support a major mining operation in Australia is about to be announced, with US solar giant First Solar signaling that it will soon […]
The future of regional Australia could be energy storage and microgrids
The comments of 2 network company heads reveal just how close parts of regional Australia are to a paradigm shift. Both Ian McLeod of Queensland’s Ergon Energy and Rob Stobbe […]
Australia’s RayGen secures funds to manufacture concentrating PV technology
Australian solar technology start-up RayGen has signed a $60 million equity and manufacturing deal to help accelerate a technology that it believes will generate $1 billion in sales by 2020. […]
Hybrid solar solutions promise affordable energy: First the outback, next the grid
Solar hybrid plants are tipped as the next big thing in large-scale solar in Australia. With utilities unlikely to commission major solar farms on the main grid – mostly due […]
Queensland solar feed-in tariff rates set at 6.3¢/kWh-8.7¢/kWh
Households in Queensland regional areas will receive a feed in tariff of between 6.3c/kWh and 8.7c/kWh for electricity exported back into the grid. The price has been announced by Queensland […]
WA’s Horizon Power says distributed solar & energy storage may play big role in grid’s future
Horizon Power, the utility that provides power to regional and remote parts of Western Australia, has recognized that the future of electricity is likely to form around distributed power, and […]
Five billion reasons why independent power makes sense
Australia. Often described as modern, sophisticated and of course, sunny; a country with 22 million smiling and suntanned jokers. What you may not know is that almost half a million […]
EU research project provides free, by-the-minute solar radiation data
Given the erratic nature of weather, is it really possible to predict exactly when, where and how strongly the sun shines? A group of European researchers seems to think so. […]
Fossil fuel subsidies vs renewable energy subsidies in Australia: Get the facts
It seems that around the world with increasing regularity, we hear complaints from opponents of solar energy that “solar subsidies are too generous”. Without doubt, solar has received support over […]
Solar power for Chernobyl exclusion zone
Chernobyl is notorious as the site of the world’s worst nuclear power disaster. The 1986 explosion and meltdown in the Ukraine released vast quantities or radiation over the USSR and […]
Limiting peak demand with ‘pipe’ approach won’t work for Australia, says APVI
When electricity demand peaks, it not only requires power plants to be fired up to meet the demand, but also increases the price of electricity. For example, in the US, […]
Solar modules set to get smarter in 2014
While no one argues that investing in PV modules isn’t a smart move today, it won’t be long before we start asking if our modules are just as smart – […]
IRENA announces loans in support of 6 renewable energy projects in developing countries
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has announced USD$41 million worth of concessional loans that the agency has made available for 6 projects in developing countries through a partnership with the […]
Lessons learned from the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme: An academic view
While last year’s debacle with WA’s feed-in tariff is already resolved, was still a reminder of the history that this policy mechanism has had elsewhere in Australia. The WA feed-in tariff, after […]
What will Australia’s electricity grid look like in 2050? CSIRO makes some informed guesses
How will electricity be generated, stored, and distributed in the future? This question is one of the most pressing of our time, and countless organisations have had a shot at […]
Latronic Sunpower: Australian-made grid-connect and stand-alone inverters
Latronic Sunpower is a Queensland, Australia-based inverter manufacturer that operates globally. The company has been in business for over 27 years. The company makes inverters for residential, commercial and industrial […]
Magellan Power’s ‘smoothing’ devices for grid-connect solar
When northwestern WA‘s electricity utility Horizon mandated that solar photovoltaic (PV) systems must regulate their power output, one of the first companies with the capacity to offer a viable technological […]
$400m to be invested in off-grid renewables by 2018: ARENA
Australia’s clean energy investment body–the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced a $400 million fund for off-grid and ‘fringe-of-grid’ communities. The purpose of the fund–in addition to driving investment in […]
Tigo Energy: Power Maximizers for solar PV systems
Tigo Energy provides power optimisation solutions for residential, commercial and utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, allowing owners to get the most of their solar power systems. The company was formed […]
BHP’s mining in Western Australia gets solar-powered
BHP Nickel West Kalgoorlie is a mining facility located in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, approximately 600 kilometres east of Perth and includes two sites – a smelting operation […]
SolarEdge: Module-level DC-DC optimisers for solar PV systems
One of the trickiest parts of maximising efficiency in a solar installation is dealing with variations in power output among panels and strings of panels in the same system. SolarEdge is a company […]
Smart Grid, Smart City – helping residents with their energy bills in NSW
The NSW Government has funded a new energy efficiency project, ‘Smart Grid, Smart City’. The project aims to change the energy behaviour of Australians, helping them to take control of their energy […]
A gross Solar Feed-in Tariff for Queensland?
Although a gross metering setup for small-scale solar, suggested as a possible alternative to the current set up, has resulted in uncertainty and concern in solar industry, solar PV still […]
Solmetric’s Suneye 210: An on-site tool for estimating solar PV system performance
Solmetric’s Suneye 210 is a comprehensive site evaluation tool for solar PV system design and installation. The Suneye 210 allows installers and designers to accurately predict a solar PV system’s […]
Kyocera’s Energy Management System: An integrated battery storage solution
Kyocera has introduced an integrated Energy Management System (EMS) and battery storage solution onto the Japanese market for the summer of 2012. The Kyocera EMS combines Kyocera solar panels with […]
