A new solar powered tourism attraction on Victoria’s Phillip Island is gearing up to greet thousands of visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the island’s famous fairy penguins. The nightly “penguin parade” is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Australia. The $58.2 million Penguin Parade Visitor Centre will help Phillip Island Nature Parks manage […]
Darwin has declared a Northern Territory climate emergency. Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis is calling on both the Territory and federal governments to take immediate action to address the escalating crisis. Which is all well and good. If only the city — one of the nation’s most sun-drenched — had more installed solar panels than cloudy Hobart, […]
Queensland customers who switch to the cheapest market offer can lower electricity bills, according to an energy watchdog. Data from the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) shows residential customers could have cut their electricity bill by 35 per cent in the June quarter if they had switched to the lowest market offer. That amounts to a […]
Rooftop solar power helped drive the renewably generated energy share of the electricity market above 30 per cent for most of June. Green Energy Markets’ latest update shows solar power is shining on the National Electricity Market (NEM), even in winter. Solar capacity ensured renewable energy contributed above 30 per cent of the market energy […]
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has issued an update on Australian renewable power, while redefining its priorities for the financial year. The CEFC made new investment commitments of almost $1.5 billion in the 12 months to June 30 2019. Its investment spread across 30 transactions with a total value of $6.3 billion. The CEFC is responsible […]
Move over, Powerpack – the Tesla Megapack is shaking up the renewables sector with each unit offering 3 MWh of storage. Tesla says the Megapack comes straight from the factory fully assembled, along with its own sophisticated software and machine learning platform. The California based company claims Megapack arrays can provide a zero-emissions, 250 MW/1 […]
Australia is close to implementing a national battery standard. This follows Standards Australia’s approval of a first draft of regulations covering energy storage in an announcement last week. The Clean Energy Council (CEC) applauded the move as a big step forward for the growing energy storage industry. However, some stakeholders are unhappy with the requirements. That’s […]
Tesla’s South Australian virtual power plant (VPP) is already saving low-income households more than 20 per cent on their electricity bills. The government reports that SA’s most disadvantaged households are pooling output from free solar panels and Tesla Powerwall 2 batteries to cut power bills. Individual solar battery systems within the VPP connect to form a large, […]
Chinese electric vehicle battery maker CATL will soon sell home solar batteries to a Japanese market starved of cheap energy storage. CATL, the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle batteries aims to slash the price of Japanese home batteries by providing components. CATL’s Japanese partner Next Energy & Resources will then assemble them. With a […]
South Australia is looking to expand its $200 million SA Home Battery Scheme to include rental properties. Of the 2,300 subsidies approved under the program, just 11 have been for batteries in households occupied by renters. Since it opened 10 months ago, the HBS has seen over 1,500 home battery systems installed around the state. […]