The Australian solar industry is facing a new threat – this time from gas network operators who believe that incentives for rooftop solar and solar hot water if pushing their […]
Category: Solar Choice News
Solar Choice’s news service about local, national and global developments about solar photovoltaics and related technology.
Victorian Feed-in Tariff open to low-emissions technology applicants
Anyone interested in installing small and medium sized commercial solar systems in Victoria should take note that the Victorian Government introduced a new minimum feed-in tariff rate in 2013 based […]
EnerVault unveils cost-competitive flow batteries for energy storage
Flow battery manufacturer, EnerVault, has recently announced that it is close to commissioning its first commercial flow battery-based energy storage system in California, USA. The Global Cleantech 100 listed company has also […]
Ikea dumps 10MW solar plant in Spain as retroactive solar cuts come into effect
Sweden’s iconic furniture chain Ikea has pulled the plug on one of its largest solar investments in Spain as budget-saving, retroactive subsidy cuts came into effect. The 10 megawatt (MW) […]
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, […]
Japan’s Fukushima prefecture plans for 100% renewable energy by 2040
In staid opposition to the national government’s push to restart the country’s temporarily shuttered nuclear power plants, Japan’s Fukushima prefecture has opted to pursue a path towards sourcing 100% of […]
Commissioning of Kogan Creek ‘Solar Boost’ project delayed until 2015
Australia will have to wait another year before witnessing the start of production from its first large scale solar thermal energy plant, following delays at the 44MW Kogan Creek solar […]
Hunter Valley vineyard to cut power bills with 200kW solar system
Hunter Valley’s Drayton Family Wines recently powered up a 200 kilowatt (kW) solar farm with the intent of saving money on its power bills, following suit with thousands of other businesses […]
Australia’s Dyesol looking to set up shop in Turkey
Australian-based dye solar cell manufacturer Dyesol is looking to the Turkish market and has signed a contract to build a first prototype production facility. Dye solar cells can be incorporated […]
California’s Ivanpah ‘Solar Tower’ now online
The 392 megawatt (MW) Ivanpah Solar Project has at long last come online in California. The solar thermal plant, located south of Las Vegas, Nevada across the California border will […]
Australian Solar Council kicks off campaign to save the Renewable Energy Target
The Australian Solar Council has launched a campaign to protect the Renewable Energy Target (RET) and to ‘save solar’. The Solar Council has thus far been one of the most […]
Germany proposes tax on ‘self-consumption’ of solar for commercial & industrial users
Proposed changes to Germany’s renewable energy support mechanism could result in a further deceleration in the country’s uptake of solar PV, with some warning that they could bring about the […]
Elon Musk adds Tesla batteries to grid PV with SolarCity’s DemandLogic
After creating highly successful online payment systems (PayPal), electric sports cars (Tesla Motors), commercial space travel (SpaceX) and more recently, the largest US residential PV installation company (SolarCity), billionaire Elon […]
AEMO data confirms rooftop solar pushing back peak energy demand in Vic and SA
The ability of rooftop solar to shift the peak of consumption has been highlighted by new analysis from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) into events during the recent heat-waves […]
Renewables are now mainstream in Germany: Merkel
Now that they account for 25% of Germany’s electricity generation, renewable energy technologies are part of the mainstream, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the first major speech of her […]
Solar homes & businesses meeting more than 10% of daytime electricity demand in WA, SA & QLD
The influence of rooftop solar PV on Australia’s electricity grids is growing steadily, highlighted by recent data that shows households and businesses are supplying more than 10 per cent of […]
Pollinate Energy brings solar lighting to India’s ‘urban poor’ by fostering the entrepreneurial spirit
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is sweeping the globe and having a huge impact on the world’s electricity generation & transmission infrastructure. When most people think ‘solar power’, the thing that […]
Promising organic battery technology for energy storage
A new class of inexpensive, organic (non-metal) materials has been reported by researchers at Harvard University that has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of flow batteries for energy […]
Facts pack: Electricity price and solar energy in Australia 2014
The newspapers are full of stories about electricity costs and it’s no wonder because prices have increased by as much as 33% in some states in the last three years. […]
Market share for anti-reflection coated glass to reach 75% in 2014
With anti-reflection coatings on module glass promising gains of up to 3% or more in module efficiency, the glass industry is predicting an increasing uptake (PDF) of anti-reflection coating among PV module […]
Canadian Solar largest foreign supplier to surging Japanese market
Canadian Solar topped the list of foreign exporters of solar PV modules to Japan in 2013, supplying 508MW towards the country’s renewable energy drive following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In […]
Cost of solar power set to fall further in next 5 years: Trina Solar
Within five years, the average cost of solar PV will fall to around 6c/kWh – putting it on par with coal and gas fired generators in many countries, and making […]
Axing the small-scale renewables target could cost 7,000 solar jobs
The Australian solar industry – which employs more people than the gold mining, and oil and gas industries, and nearly as many as coal mining – could lose nearly two […]
Are falling battery costs the solution to solar PV ills?
While the cost of solar PV is no longer the roadblock to widespread adoption it used to be, one can’t say the same about its intermittent nature, which continues to […]
Solar goes digital: Welcome to the virtual world of SolarCoin
You have probably heard of Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency launched in 2009. It’s essentially a currency which allows participants to value, verify and record payments for […]
US solar job growth is booming. What’s in store for Australia?
Renewable energy is booming in the United States, with renewable technologies accounting for 37% of the new electricity generation capacity in the country in 2013. With this has come a […]
Metallisation paste advances boost efficiencies for REC modules
Singapore-based REC Solar and DuPont Microcircuit Materials, a key developer of metal pastes for the PV industry, have recently announced that DuPont’s new ‘Solamet PV18x’ series of metallisation pastes have […]
ARENA announces groundbreaking for Australia’s largest solar farm & opening of QLD solar panel coating facility
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has welcomed the passage of important milestones for 2 projects in its portfolio: Groundbreaking at the Nyngan Solar Farm in NSW and a the […]
Renewable energy researchers receive Order of Australia honours
If the long weekend and fine weather itself wasn’t enough to cheer up solar energy enthusiasts this Australia Day, a quick look at the line-up of the 2014 Order of […]
Higher potential efficiencies in thin film PV with new CIS material
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Texas, Austin have developed a new, inexpensive material for thin-film photovoltaics that is able to capture […]
Rooftop solar already less expensive than grid power–even in Europe
A report from the biggest solar research centre in Europe suggests that rooftop solar PV is clearly cheaper than electricity sourced from the grid – even in northern European countries […]
