Australian Solar Farms in 2024 – An Overview

Harnessing the Sun: Australia’s Solar Farms Set to Shine in 2024

As we continue our steadfast commitment to renewable energy, 2024 marks a pivotal year for Australia’s solar energy sector. With an increasing focus on sustainability and reduced carbon emissions, a host of groundbreaking solar farm projects are on the horizon. From vast expanses of desert to rolling farmlands, these projects are set to reshape Australia’s energy landscape and contribute significantly to the nation’s clean energy goals.

Bungala Solar Farm Expansion – South Australia

The Bungala Solar Farm, situated near Port Augusta in South Australia, is primed to undergo a significant expansion in 2024. This expansion will elevate Bungala’s status as one of the largest solar farms in the Southern Hemisphere. Once completed, the farm will cover an area of over 2,000 hectares, equivalent to more than 3,000 football fields.

The expansion will bring an additional capacity of around 300 megawatts (MW) to the grid, generating enough electricity to power tens of thousands of homes. The Bungala Solar Farm exemplifies Australia’s commitment to transforming its abundant sunlight into a clean and sustainable energy source, further contributing to the state’s renewable energy targets.

Sunraysia Solar Farm – New South Wales

In the heart of New South Wales, the Sunraysia Solar Farm is gearing up for its grand debut in 2024. This ambitious project, spanning approximately 2,000 hectares near Balranald, aims to generate a staggering 1,200 MW of solar power once fully operational. To put this into perspective, the energy produced will be equivalent to powering an estimated 500,000 homes.

The Sunraysia Solar Farm’s cutting-edge technology includes solar tracking systems that follow the sun’s trajectory throughout the day, maximizing energy capture. Such innovations underscore Australia’s determination to utilize the latest advancements in solar technology, driving the nation toward a more sustainable energy future.

Western Downs Green Power Hub – Queensland

Queensland, known for its sunny climate and vast landscapes, is set to host the Western Downs Green Power Hub. This monumental project, located near Chinchilla, is scheduled to commence operations in 2024. The solar farm, spanning over 1,600 hectares, will have an impressive capacity of around 500 MW.

What sets the Western Downs Green Power Hub apart is its integration of battery storage technology. This allows the farm to store excess energy during peak production hours and release it during periods of high demand, ensuring a more stable and reliable power supply. The integration of energy storage reflects Australia’s commitment to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of renewable energy sources.

Yarrabee Solar Project – Victoria

In Victoria, the Yarrabee Solar Project is set to shine in 2024, contributing to the state’s renewable energy goals. This solar farm, located near the town of Echuca, will cover approximately 700 hectares and boast a capacity of around 250 MW. The Yarrabee Solar Project showcases how renewable energy projects can align with local communities, providing economic growth and employment opportunities.

What’s Next?

Australia’s solar farms scheduled for launch or expansion in 2024 are emblematic of the nation’s commitment to a more sustainable energy future. These projects not only harness the abundant solar resources that Australia is blessed with but also reflect a steadfast dedication to reducing carbon emissions and transitioning toward cleaner energy sources.

From the Bungala Solar Farm’s expansion in South Australia to the technological innovations of the Sunraysia Solar Farm in New South Wales, and the integration of energy storage at the Western Downs Green Power Hub in Queensland, these solar farms serve as beacons of progress. As the Yarrabee Solar Project emerges in Victoria, the ripple effect of these projects will undoubtedly extend beyond the energy sector, contributing to local economies and solidifying Australia’s role as a global leader in renewable energy innovation.

  1. Bungala Solar Farm – South Australia Website: Bungala Solar Farm
  2. Sunraysia Solar Farm – New South Wales Website: Sunraysia Solar Farm
  3. Western Downs Green Power Hub – Queensland Website: Western Downs Green Power Hub
  4. Yarrabee Solar Project – Victoria Website: Yarrabee Solar Project

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Darlington Point Solar Farm to receive 100MW battery

The NSW based Darlington Point Solar Farm will receive a 100MW built adjacent to the facility as part of a $3.2b push from the NSW government to bolster energy storage alongside soaring solar panel install rates.

Darlington Point Solar Farm Battery

The Darlington Point Solar Farm commenced operations earlier this year so to have energy storage sitting alongside it will be a massive boon for everyone involved. According to Wikipedia the total output will be 333MW DC or 275MW AC, with Delta Energy having a PPA for 150MW.

Shell Energy and Edify Energy will work together over the next 10 years to build the 100MW battery – with Shell taking a half share of the Darlington Point battery, according to Greg Joiner, CEO of Shell.

“This long-term services agreement is a model for how large energy users can access dispatchable power like battery storage, which complements renewables, while contributing to a cleaner and more resilient power system,” Mr Joiner said.

Edify’s CEO John Cole was also understandably bullish about the situation:

“Energy storage is fast becoming a valued capacity solution for the National Electricity Market, given its fast and precise response,” Mr Cole said. “The uncertainties in this growing technology class are reducing and with it the barriers to acceptance from market and network participants.”

Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean put out a press release discussing the battery and NSW’s solar future plans:

“The NSW government is the second-biggest energy customer in the state, and we are using our purchasing power to leverage new dispatchable capacity to help power our schools, hospitals, traffic lights and tunnels,” Mr Kean said.

“This battery will help to keep the lights on and keep costs down during peak energy periods, and support more renewable energy to come online.”

With commercial solar power going from strength to strength in 2021 it’s heartening to see large-scale energy storage solutions growing at a somewhat commensurate rate. Should help us cut down on the ‘what do you do when the sun’s not shining’ naysayers!

Click here to learn more about the Darlington Point Solar Farm from Edify’s website!

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Vecco Group: $25m for Australia’s first vanadium battery plant.

Queensland-based Vecco Group will spend up to $25 million building Australia’s first vanadium battery plant in Brisbane.

Vecco Group and Australia’s first vanadium battery plant

According to InQueensland, Vecco Group have come to an agreement with China’s Shanghai Electric – one of the largest electrical equipment manufacturing companies in China – for an initial purchase of vanadium electrolytes (Confused about flow batteries? Click here to learn how a Vanadium Redox Battery works)

Thomas Northcott, Managing Director of Vecco Group said, “this is a significant step forward for Vecco in securing an integrated supply chain from our Debella Vanadium + HPA Project through to battery production.”

“We are excited to be capturing the first mover advantage in Australia and south east Asia for what is a rapidly growing market for large scale renewable energy storage.” Northcott continued in a press release from Vecco Group.

“Demand is currently strong and there is significant future demand supplying large long duration vanadium batteries to support green hydrogen projects around Australia.”

Vecco is also carrying out a pre-IPO to raise $5 million and is aiming at a full IPO next year.

As we continue with advancements in solar battery technology, it’s fantastic to see alternative options to lithium-ion – the flow batteries such as Redflow are awfully heavy but they have a great use case if the technology can continue improving at this rate. With that said, vanadium batteries have been proposed as early as the 1930’s and have been in production since the 1980’s, so they probably have some ground to make up.

Vecco Group Flow Battery example by Colintheone – https://avs.scitation.org/doi/10.1116/1.4983210, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59002803

The vanadium industry

The vanadium industry has progressed significantly in 2021 with multiple announcements, including one from from mining billionaire Robert Friedland’s company VRB Energy. VRB announced a 500MWh vanadium flow battery in March. Gigafactory in China and Sir Mick Davis, the ex-CEO of Xstrata are also invested in Kazakhstan based vanadium company Ferro-Alloy Resources.

Vanadium flow batteries last for 25 years, suffer no capacity degradation and a low environmental footprint, as the electrolyte is almost 100% recyclable.

Other companies working in the space include UniEnergy Technologies, StorEn Technologies, and Ashlawn Energy in the United States; Renewable Energy Dynamics Technology and VoltStorage in Europe; Prudent Energy in China;Australian Vanadium in Australia.

 

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How much electricity does a solar panel generate per day? What’s a tier 1 panel?

Having the world’s highest average solar radiation per square meter, Australia is considered the most potential and viable solar energy source whether you’re a home or a commercial entity looking to install panels on your premises.

Choosing the right solar system can be very confusing as there’s a lot of misleading jargon and buzzwords – especially with the solar panels! You’ll also have to ensure they are compatible with your entire solar system – you’ve then got to see how they interact with each other before trying to calculate their output, which can be challenging as well.

It is impossible to tell you with certainty that your solar panel produces this much power – as this varies from brand to brand and panel to panel. There’s also something else you need to consider in addition to choosing a panel – the quality of manufacturer, generally ranked via solar panel tiers.

How much electricity does a solar panel generate per day? Photo by Ryan Searle on Unsplash

How are solar panels tiered?

Solar panels are categorized into three tiers, with tier 1 as the best. This can affect output depending on the brand and number of watts per panel (especially over longer periods of time). Your location will also be important – obviously someone in Australia is going to get better value out of a solar installation than someone in Glasgow (only 50 days of sunshine a year there…).

Let’s discuss the concept of a Tier 1 solar panel. This is a bit of a misnomer – in the sense that Tier 1 or Bank-ability solar panels come from companies which have been in the industry for many years and are financially capable of dealing with your warranty issues, repairing issues or any problems you encounter over the ~10 years you will use their product. That’s my convoluted way of saying Tier 1 denotes the ranking of the manufacturer itself, not the solar panel. It is the manufacturer who will back up your product in the case of potential future defective panels or installations. Banks or investors may not want to put their money in your solar power project (commercial solar or residential) unless they’re satisfied your manufacturers are likely to be around if and when your solar systems malfunction. How many successful projects has the company undertaken? How long have they been around? The answers to these questions will impact which tier the manufacturer is.

It is important to keep in mind that Tier 2 or Tier 3 solar panels are not always a poor choice per se – these manufacturers can also offer high quality panels, it’s just riskier to rely on them because the company is recently established, and you may not be sure how long they’ll be in the industry. Maybe their manufacturing standards aren’t as robust as some of the bigger brands – as always, you get what you pay for. It’s a matter of weighing up the pros and cons and ensuring your solar investment is making money within your risk tolerance. And if you’re going for a bigger installation, it’s generally worth going for a quality manufacturer and a tier 1 panel. Preferably more than one, but you get the point.

Who chooses solar panel tiers?

This tier-based ranking (remember, it’s per manufacturer, not per panel) is decided by Bloomberg New Energy Finance – a research organization. There are other ‘tier’ lists out there which are better off avoided as it can be very confusing – the Bloomberg list has been well trusted for a long time.

If you’re interested in more detail in how a company’s tier is decided, the official BloombergNEF site has a useful PDF you can download here.

Just remember, there’s a lot of marketing involved in solar, so be sure to ask as many questions as you can to the salesperson. Grab a copy of the spec sheet for the panels they’re showing you and check it out yourself. Do your due diligence and you can even end up with a cashflow positive solar installation.

How much electricity does a solar panel generate per day?

Your location and the amount of watts in the solar panel will also impact the amount of power your panels are able to generate. solar panels will be in terms of making the most of the solar power.

Your inverter also plays an important role in regulating and maximising generation of solar power. A top-notch quality solar inverter determines how well your solar output is distributed, applicable once the DC power turns into AC.

In Australia you can generally bank on 10-12 hours of sunlight during summer. For simplicity’s sake, let’s call average sunlight 10 hours for our calculation, and the capacity of the solar panel we’re measuring is 300 watts:

Total Watts = Average time of sunlight x Solar Panels watts x Number of Panels

= 10 x 300 x 1

= 3000 Watts Hour or 30KWH Daily

But we also need to consider solar panel efficiency. A solar panel has a maximum of 15–22% efficiency, due to the Shockley-Queisser limit silicon panels will never reach greater than 1/3 efficiency.

Let’s calculate total watts from a single panel, daily, with 20% efficiency:

3000 Watts x 20% = 600 Watt Hours or 0.66KWH per day.

If you want to measure solar output you have numerous options depending on which inverter you’ve chosen. Most of them offer a web-based interface so you can keep an eye on how much money you’re saving – you could even pipe the solar statistics to a Raspberry Pi, or automate reports showing how much you’ve saved. Solar power in Australia has never been cheaper – we’re seeing a meteoric rise in commercial solar installations nationwide, whether you’re Ikea or an SME – it’s time to go green and choose solar power for your business.

Which manufacturers offer tier 1 solar panels in 2021?

As per review.solar for Q1 2021:

  • LONGi
  • Jinko
  • JA Solar
  • Trina Solar
  • Canadian Solar
  • Risen
  • QCells
  • Suntech
  • Talesun
  • First Solar
  • ZNShine
  • Seraphim
  • Eging
  • Haitai New Energy
  • Astronergy
  • Jolywood
  • SunPower/ Maxeon
  • Jinergy
  • VSUN Solar
  • Jetion
  • LG Electronics
  • BYD
  • AE Solar
  • Phono Solar
  • Waaree
  • HT-SAAE
  • REC Group
  • URE
  • ET Solar
  • Renesola
  • Adani
  • Boviet
  • Vikram
  • Ulica
  • Leapton
  • Hansol
  • Kyocera
  • S-Energy
  • Recom
  • Shinsung
  • Heliene
  • Sharp
  • Swelect
  • Photowatt

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What’s in the future for Solar Power in Australia?

The International Monetary Fund has underlined revisions to the growth prospects of the Australian economy. This marking an end to the economic growth that followed the 2008 financial crisis, as Australia is faced with bleak prospects in the 2020-2021 financial year. As politicians and fund managers scramble, the golden question seems to be what will spur growth not just in the short term, but into the future.

Australia is looking to leaders in Europe who have their own stimulus package coming in at $1220 billion AUD in size, which is heavily investing in energy and clean transport. This vision is supported by not only the economic benefit of job creation, but it provides a sustainable environmental solution, in what is fast proving to be a daunting threat in climate change around the world. 

Leading economies seem to share this vision, although not entirely. China is approving coal-fired plants at the fastest rate since 2015, while also heavily investing in electric transportation. India is heavily invested into renewable energy and so is Japan. Australia in its own right has continued to pursue its national projects including the “200% renewable Tasmania” announcement by the Tasmanian government. While bright spots are found, there is still an abundant need for a stimulus that looks beyond the next 5 years of economic recovery. 

The prospect of renewables seems to be improving for businesses and home owners. With renowned problems such as costs and efficiency being gripes of consumers in the past, the renewables market has shown a continuity of innovation over the past two decades. The improvement in engineering has pushed the efficiency of silicon solar cells closer to their theoretical maximum while improving innovations seek to maximize the sunlight the panels can be exposed to. Resulting in higher returns coming from renewable energy systems, such as solar, while being more accessible to individuals around Australia.

Solar energy increasingly has been lowering in cost as the market for the products matures and the labor required is more accessible, resulting in Australians moving from a reported 16% of all electricity generated by Solar or Wind to 40% in 2030. This being attributed to lowering costs and increased return on investment. It seems that the market for solar in particular is an enticing offering for consumers.

The question comes then of how to formulate a stimulus to drive the growth of renewable energy, to not only fight climate change, but fight the impending economic catastrophe of COVID-19. Demand from consumers and businesses present an opportunity for further incentives, while the fallout of 2020 may have a profound impact on the targets set for the next 20 years, which will have far reaching effects.

Whether we emerge from a turbulent 2020 looking towards a better future is entirely up to us, and it seems apparent that renewables, particularly solar could be the way to look when looking to drive productive economic growth. 

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