To save you some time, we’ve searched the internet for the latest news in solar farm projects and other renewables. Grab your coffee, here’s the industry must-knows for the week (09/01/23 edition):
- Australia’s Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has awarded A$41.5 million in funding to 13 research projects aimed at reducing solar costs. (PV Tech)
- Mercedes-Benz Energy, part of the large automotive OEM, has expanded its range of second life energy storage partnerships into India through a 50MWh per annum module supply deal with local firm Lohum. (Energy Storage News)
- Space solar power technology demo launched into orbit. (Science Daily)
- World-leading solar researcher UNSW Scientia Professor Martin Green says that PV research activities in Australia right across the value chain will be accelerated by the recent $41.5 million (USD 28.5 million) funding awards from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. (PV Magazine)
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Audi pledges to go all-electric by 2033. (The Driven)
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Federal Labor and the New South Wales Coalition governments have joined forces to fund eight critical electricity transmission and renewable energy zone projects in the state, including the new lines needed to “plug Snowy 2.0 into the grid.” (Renew Economy)
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Compelled by catastrophic circumstances, Puerto Rico must now push toward energy resilience and in the process may see itself become a model not just for other islands, but mainland grids as well. (PV Magazine)
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Energy Insiders Podcast: Chris Bowen on gas, batteries, EVs, wind and targets (Energy Insiders Podcast)
Our shot of the week (from the Meralli archives) is from the 9.18MW Kanowna Solar Farm in Bullarah, New South Wales. Launched in northern NSW in 2019, showing, as state agriculture minister Adam Marshall put it, “what the future could possibly be like right across rural and remote NSW”. The 9 MW project near Moree built by Uralla-based Meralli Solar has been described, as “cutting-edge” for its use of both DC optimisers and DC-coupled battery architecture for central inverters.
Billed as the first solar farm in Australia to integrate both technologies, the Kanowna project will be able to dispatch electricity from the solar farm or the battery at times of peak demand and in the evening. The project is said to have opted for such a combination of technologies amid connection challenges. Read more about this project here https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2019/09/24/smart-solar-farm-switches-on-in-northern-nsw/
