#Australia is on a roll when it comes to #solar power. The plan is to add the equivalent of one mega solar project each month, with the present installed base of 10 gigawatts expected to double by the end of next year. If you think this is impressive, keep reading!
As per #Array Technologies, the most recent large-scale solar project to pop up is the Darlington Point Solar Farm – a 333 megawatt project which will be located in Griffith, New South Wales. The sixth biggest country on the planet is making some remarkable moves.
A Solar Surge in Australia
Solar power is becoming a household name across the globe. But in Australia, this form of clean #energy truly took off in 2018, when 1.5 gigawatt of solar came online. This is substantial because it is 10 times the amount that came online the previous year.
Where can you find the most Australian solar growth in generation capacity? The utility segment. Regardless, industrial, commercial and residential solar installations are all continuing to develop rapidly, as per Australian PV Institute. Currently, Australia has more than 10.1 GW of solar installed. This amount is about to meet more than 5 percent of its energy demand, and can deliver more than 14.5 terawatt-hours of electricity on a yearly basis.
Solar Trackers
Solar trackers are seeing global demand increase quickly in places such as Australia. The government demonstrates its support for utility-scale solar through the Solar Flagships Program, which costs a substantial amount – $1.5 billion. This is part of the Clean Energy Initiative.
And have you heard of solar + storage? This is another driving factor in the solar market of Australia. It is a technology combo which assists utilities and allows them to avoid expanding certain components of their assets. There are certainly improvements being made and ground-breaking changes worth exploring.
Renewable Energy Growth
Because of corporate property developers, the commercial solar segment is seeing growth. Goodman, Vicinity and Dexus are some of the property giants leading the charge. Another segment seeing rapid growth (as previously mentioned) happens to be residential solar installations. In Australia, there have been 1.95 million installations, in accordance with calculations by #APVI.
Let’s dive into this a bit more. Consistent with #SolarPlaza, households with solar rooftops peaked at 2 million last year – #Queensland tops the list for the leader in national installations.
Executive vice president of global sales at Array, #Jeff Krantz, commented on colossal projects necessitating the least levelized cost of energy to compete economically.
Let’s go back to the 333 megawatt project mentioned previously. Homeowners are clearly excited about this mission – the Darlington Point project, which is a combined undertaking between Octopus Investments and Australian renewable energy developer #Edify Energy. Why? It is going to supply power to more than 115,000 Australian homes each year. These companies are committed when it comes to clean energy, and the numbers speak for themselves. More than $450 million has been arranged by them to finance the #solar farm.
Chief executive of Edify Energy, #John Cole, made a statement regarding why Array Technologies was chosen to provide solar trackers to the Darlington Point Solar Farm. The reason is because Array Technologies is able to provide a ground-breaking tracking solution, that through “engineered simplicity,” lessens long-standing upkeep to provide the lowest levelized cost of energy for projects.
Array is confident in its abilities regarding solar. It has truly established itself as the preferred solar tracker company in Australia. To date, it has supplied more than 1.5 GW of technology to solar farms in the country.
#Signal Energy Australia, a subsidiary of Signal Energy LLC, has headquarters in Sydney New South Wales. According to their website, they are an all-inclusive design/build contractor providing Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) solutions for utility-scale clean energy ventures.
But the biggest non-utility investor in onshore renewables in the UK is #Octopus Investments Australia. This company is the principal commercial solar competitor in Europe. The numbers are quite impressive – they boast a $4.5 billion (AUD) collection of clean energy assets, adding together to 2 GW.
Clearly, there is a great deal happening in Australia as it relates to solar power. It is worth following solar news to stay on top of the latest projects, as they are rather remarkable. It will be interesting to see what happens in the near future!
Sources:
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/10/australia-adding-one-mega-solar-project-per-month/
No comments:
Post a Comment