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, […]
Category: Solar Choice News
Solar Choice’s news service about local, national and global developments about solar photovoltaics and related technology.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
International standards proposed for redox reflow batteries
A recent development may give grid storage batteries, particularly redox flow batteries, a major push towards adoption. The International Electrochemical Commission (IEC), a body that issues important universal technical standards, […]
Expose into Australian power prices
Australia’s ABC radio recently conducted a detailed research story into who is really to blame for the rising price of power in Australia. The background for the story is the […]
New solar export rates coming for New South Wales
Although New South Wales historically had the most generous Feed In Tariffs in Australia ($0.60c gross), those days are long behind us. For the last few years however, solar customers […]
Recommended feed-in tariff rates for NSW to fall again
Feed-in tariffs for rooftop solar in New South Wales have been slashed again, with the state’s pricing regulator recommending a retailer contribution of just 5.3c/kWh for solar energy exported back […]
New-build solar PV up to 50% cheaper than new-build nuclear in Germany & UK
New-build solar PV has been identified by German researchers as one of two market-ready renewable energy sources that can generate electricity for up to 50 percent cheaper than new-build nuclear. […]
AEMC to introduce new, streamlined processes for connecting solar to the grid
Australia’s national energy regulator has given the nod to electricity market reforms that will make it cheaper, easier and faster for households and business to invest in and install clean […]
Australian households lead the way in solar PV investment
Australian households accounted for nearly two-thirds of total investment in renewables in Australia in 2013, and virtually all of it in 2014, according to research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. […]
Combined solar PV and bio-fuel farms: The best of both worlds?
What’s better than a solar farm that produces electricity from the sun? Well, a solar farm that produces electricity and biofuels from the sun, of course! A recent Stanford study […]
Solar power: a space-time gift from the universe on your roof
The benefits that solar power provides are well documented; saving money, fixed electricity costs and lowering your global footprint. Just the other day, I was reminded just how incredible the […]
Macquarie Group awarded electricity retail licence
Just months after revealing plans to start a solar leasing business in Australia, Macquarie Group has been awarded an electricity retail license. Macquarie, who last December committed nearly $200 million to the […]
Outlook of China’s solar market
Continued uncertainty around China’s solar policy means the achievement of its 2014 solar target of 14GW “could be challenging,” according to a new report from Deutsche Bank. The report, published on […]
ICCP reports: scale up renewable energy for decarbonisation
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that renewable energy sources such as wind and solar must lie at the core of a massive decarbonisation of the world’s […]
