Construction of Australia’s first stand-alone concentrated solar thermal power station with integrated storage is underway in NSW, with a project that promises to deliver electricity on demand, for around 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, […]
Ambri’s liquid metal battery edges closer to commercialisation
Promising grid-scale battery technology startup Ambri has recently completed its third round of funding, bringing its unique liquid metal battery closer to full-scale commercialisation. Ambri raised a total of USD […]
Glass sphere concentrator offers creative solution to improving solar PV efficiency
Greater sunlight-to-energy conversion efficiency is something that solar photovoltaic technology manufacturers and researchers alike strive for, and cost-effective efficiency improvements are something of a Holy Grail in the PV industry. […]
AGL’s submission to RET review urges incentive reductions
Leading Australian utility AGL Energy has been accused of joining the electricity sector “dark side” after it called for the small-scale component of the Renewable Energy Target, currently under review […]
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 […]
China to aim for 70GW solar by end of 2017, USA & India also plan big on clean energy
China is looking to more than triple its solar capacity by the end of 2018, as the US and India also look to boost their renewables and solar capacity. The […]
IEA: Solar to account for 27% of global energy generation by 2050
Solar power looks set to become the world’s dominant energy source, with new data from the International Energy Agency predicting a combination of PV and concentrating solar thermal and storage […]
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, […]
Solar PV could reach 10% of global power generation capacity by 2020: UBS
Solar PV could reach 10 per cent of global capacity by the end of the decade, says global investment bank UBS, as production costs continue to fall and major economies […]
Solar will be to utilities as Twitter was to newspapers: BNEF
Is solar about to enjoy it’s own Twitter moment? There are lots of comparisons about the impact of solar on the utility business model and what occurred at Kodak in […]
Murdoch Uni develops algorithm to predict solar output in SW Australia
Researchers at Murdoch University have developed a web-based simulator to calculate the hourly power output of photovoltaic and concentrated solar thermal (CST) power systems for south-west Australia that accounts for […]
Solar industry will see massive expansion to 2030 despite RET fears: BNEF
Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that solar capacity in Australia will reach 23GW by 2030, underpinned by rooftop solar that will resist most industry attempts to stop its rollout. Kobad […]
Solar Choice releases pricing data for commercial-scale solar PV systems (10kW-100kW)
Click here to see latest commercial solar prices On the back of the success of its monthly Solar PV Price Index articles, which focus mainly on residential solar PV systems, […]
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 […]
Sunny Australia’s solar uptake lags behind dreary UK’s
Queensland continues to remain the hot-spot for rooftop solar installations in Australia, accounting for much of the installs in the month of March, and showing an increase as falls were […]
Solar PV Price Index – May 2014
1.5kW and 2kW solar PV system prices continue to rise from April to May while 3kW-5kW remain steady and 10kW system prices have fallen. This month’s article includes for the […]
Australian concentrated PV technology finds Chinese takers
RayGen Resources, an Australian start-up, has signed a $60 million investment and distribution deal with ZhouZhou Intense Solar to export its concentrated PV-thermal (CSPV) technology as part of an official […]
What would a solar system cost without the Renewable Energy Target?
“Is the Renewable Energy Target going to survive this review in reasonably good shape?” There are only so many times you can shake the Magic 8 Ball to try to […]
Falling market shares predicted for amorphous silicon PV technology
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film market share is expected to fall in the near term according to a recent report by EnergyTrend. The prediction is based on a recent string of […]
Biodiversity plan released for solar farms
Any large scale generation facility has an impact on the land it occupies. However, well managed solar farms have some unique characteristics which make them ideally suited to encouraging biodiversity […]
Solar-powered light sculpture to light up Sydney Harbour at Vivid Festival
Best known for its work helping Indian slum-dwellers replace kerosene lamps with solar lights, Pollinate Energy‘s latest solar lighting project has a slightly less practical purpose. The Australian founded not-for-profit […]
Australia’s small-scale solar plants’ contribution now equivalent to 1GW coal plant: Clean Energy Regulator
A new report by Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has revealed that the nation’s total combined rooftop PV and solar hot water systems can generate enough renewable energy to displace the […]
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 top solar post codes are in areas with below-average incomes
New analysis of Australia’s solar PV installations has shown that regional and lower income households are the most likely to put solar systems on their roofs. The study, released on […]
SunPower CEO: Australia could be a world leader in distributed energy & solar PV
Australia has been named as a potential leader in the global shift towards decentralised renewable energy generation by the head of one of the world’s biggest solar manufacturers – provided […]
Remembering the Solar Summer of 2013-2014
This past summer was a hot one, and Australia’s electricity infrastructure certainly felt the heat as huge numbers of households switched on AC units to keep cool. The folks from […]
EU project promises commercial organic solar cells
A new European Commission-funded research project may bring organic solar cells closer to commercialisation. Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) recently announced the creation of the “MatHero” project supported by […]
Solar Council fears the RET review could end incentives for small-scale solar
The Australian Solar Council fears that the entire government rebate for small scale rooftop systems could be removed by the Abbott government’s renewable energy scheme review. John Grimes, the chief […]
Pollinate Energy to introduce solar-powered light sculpture ‘Ray’ at Sydney’s Vivid Festival
Australia’s Pollinate Energy, the NGO bringing solar-powered lighting to India’s urban poor, is planning to introduce a solar-powered light sculpture with its own personality–and name, ‘Ray’–at this year’s Vivid Festival in Sydney. […]
Researchers develop new antireflective coating that improves module efficiency by 4%
Researchers at UK’s Loughborough University have developed a new multi-layer anti-reflection (AR) coating for solar panels that simultaneously reduces reflection and improves module efficiency. The AR coating developed at the […]
