The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Energy Networks Association (ENA) have created a partnership to create a database of renewable energy grid integration projects and findings.
Yesterday, ARENA released a stocktake of 176 Australian renewable energy grid integration projects worth more than $4 billion; along with 60 key projects from countries including the US, Korea and Japan.
"This stocktake of relevant studies, trials and demonstration projects will provide the basis for further work and get the most out of existing information and investment," said ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht.
"As well as being a valuable resource for the sector, the stocktake will help ARENA make better informed funding decisions about renewable energy grid integration projects."
ENA will deliver the first two updates to ARENA’s initial stocktake late this year and next year.
"Housing the latest research, studies, findings and projects in one place will make it easier for the sector to address challenges and capitalise on opportunities involved in integrating renewables into the network," said ENA CEO John Bradley.
"The rapid increase in distributed renewable energy is upending the traditional supply system and driving an increasing need to revisit the energy network, which was originally designed for one-way delivery."
In other ARENA related news, the Senate will likely vote on repealing ARENA in the upcoming parliamentary sitting, which begins next week. The ARENA Repeal Bill 2014l isn’t expected to pass; with Labor, the Greens and crossbench senators indicating they will vote against it. In the meantime, it’s business as usual for the body.
Of 132 public submissions to a recent Senate Economics Legislation Committee enquiry, 129 submissions opposed the repeal of the ARENA Act.
In the 2014 Budget, the Abbott Government announced it would pursue consolidating ARENA with the Department of Industry and return $1.3B to consolidated revenue. If such a scenario were to occur; recent comments from Industry Minister Ian McFarlane seem to indicate it would be merged into a departmental environment rather hostile to renewables.
ARENA’s two objectives are to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies, and to increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia.
