Australia

Straddling two state borders, the West Murray region in southeastern Australia has become a microcosm of technical challenges that can plague the energy transition. Faced with serious curtailment of solar farms in this electrically remote region, a remarkable inverter-based technical feat may have changed the game.

In its largest order in Australia, the Indian multinational company has bagged Rs 2600-crore (AUD 525 million) EPC work along with Rs 415-crore (AUD 85 million) operations and maintenance job.

Australia based Neometals and India’s Manikaran Power—which announced their collaboration on India’s first lithium refinery last year—have also doubled the proposed refinery capacity to 20,000 tonnes per annum of lithium hydroxide.

The sodium-ion battery technology developer has bagged its first order from ICM Australia and is looking at India as the next destination for manufacturing with the initial target set as 1 GWh.

WoodMac analysts say the amount of new battery manufacturing capacity added in the nation this year could fall by as much as 10% because of the outbreak. With Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory affected by the extended new-year-holiday shutdown, the analyst warned of potential supply shortages for Australia and the U.S. and U.K.

Year 2019 saw some 19.5 GW of wind and solar energy contracted by corporations globally through power purchase agreements, up more than 40% from the previous year’s record. The bulk of this purchase occurred in the U.S. with tech companies and oil and gas majors leading the charge. India, however, saw a drop amid rollback of attractive policies, says a new report from BloombergNEF.

California-based SimpliPhi Power, which designs and manufactures lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) energy storage systems, has brought off-grid power to everything from the giant moon on Conan O’Brien’s talk show set to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, to rooftops for Whole Foods and Airbnb. As the company prepares to enter into India, CEO and President Catherine Von Burg tells pv magazine why their LFP technology is best suited for India and their plans for the country.

Two years after announcing its market entry, the India-based EPC heavyweight has commenced construction of its first Australian project.

Market intelligence company Navigant Research has developed a country forecast of the global market. Incentives and pricing will be the main driver of installations, though the market will continue to be concentrated in certain key regions, including India, for now.

Worth around US$635 million, the latest award follows the EPC contract for a 200 MW DC solar farm in Australia amounting to AUD 220.83 million.