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Australian Renewable Energy Agency

AGL Virtual Power Plant Upgrade?

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AGL have confirmed that their trial of networked home storage batteries has been halted temporarily as they manage unknown variables with their ‘Virtual Power Plant’ – which was labelled by AGL as the ‘largest project of its kind in the world’ earlier this year.

Virtual Power Plant

AGL Virtual Power Plant
AGL Virtual Power Plant (source: @AndyVesey_AGL)

The scheme went live in March at West Lakes in Adelaide and has see hundreds of households’ solar and battery storage linked together to form a 5MW ‘virtual solar power station’. The scheme cost $20m and ARENA (the Australian Renewable Energy Agency) kicked in $5m of that to back the project. As such the cost to the consumer was heavily subsidised and interest has been very high within the test area. 

At the time AGL MD and CEO Andy Vesey said “Our South Australian VPP demonstration is a practical example of the new energy future,” – noting that AGL planned their ‘VPP’ will deliver benefits by increasing grid stability (albeit just for the test group for the time being). The batteries installed were by Sunverge, a producer of intelligent energy storage and advanced AC-coupled storage systems. They use a proprietary virtual power plant software, and in this situation were unique as all the batteries could be remotely operated by AGL. Some customers paid extra for the AC coupled storage systems so they could use them during a blackout. 

There have, however, been potential hiccups with the Virtual Power Plant this week as AGL wrote to waitlisted customers to advise them they won’t receive any of the current Sunverge batteries, and that they plan to utilise “next-generation battery technology into our next phase of installations”. 

The ABC asked AGL about the issues with their VPP and they dodged the question about how many batteries being replaced (and what their upgrade plan is), but a spokesman did say that “Lessons and customer feedback from the initial phase of the project are being used to shape subsequent phases and we want to ensure that all customers have an opportunity to opt in to the next generation offering,”

We’ll keep you updated to see what they’re going to offer for the next phase of their Virtual Power Plant – another exciting step for energy storage technology for South Australia.

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Hayman and Daydream Solar Farm built by First Solar

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First Solar have won a module supply contract for Edify Energy‘s Daydream solar farm and Hayman solar farm in Queensland. RCR Tomlinson Ltd (ASX: RCR) was awarded the $315m contract for the farms and have decided to give the supply contract to First Solar, who now have over 500MW in the pipeline over the next 12 months. For their part, RCR have over half a Gigawatt of large-scale solar projects in their order book and over a Gigawatt currently being developed or progressed under early contractor involvement processes, according RCR Managing Director & CEO, Dr Paul Dalgleish talking to RenewEconomy.

Daydream Solar Farm and Hayman Solar Farm

First Solar - Daydream Solar Farm
First Solar – Daydream Solar Farm (source: firstsolar.com)

The Daydream solar farm will be 180.7MW and the Hayman Solar Farm will be 60.2MW – the two projects are located just north of Collinsville in North Queensland – in the Whitsunday region. According to ELP.com, they will use single axis tracking technology which has been commissioned from Array Technologies, and over 2 million advanced thin film PV modules from First Solar, to produce around 531,000 MWh of renewable energy every year.

Edify signed a power purchase agreement with Origin Energy for the Daydream solar farm’s output (they’ll also buy the renewable energy certificates), but the Hayman Solar Farm will operate as a merchant plant.

About First Solar and Edify Energy

First Solar, Inc. are an American based PV manufacturer of rigid film modules, or solar panels, and also a provider of utility-scale PV power plants. In 2009 they were the first solar panel manufacturer to lower their creation cost to $1 (USD) per watt. According to Wikipedia they produced CdTe-panels (cadmium telluride) with an efficiency of ~14% at a cost of 0.59 USD / watt in 2013. They’re the second largest maker of PV modules worldwide.

Edify Energy are an Australian renewable energy development and investment company who have led the financing and delivery of over 30 utility scale solar PV projects at a cost of over $1b. For the Daydream solar farm and Hayman solar farm, they won ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) funding last September under their large-scale solar funding round.

More good news for Queensland solar farms – construction on the projects will commence almost immediately – scheduled for Q3 2017, with module delivery to arrive in Q4 2017 and Q1 2018.

 

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Remote NT Solar hits 10 site target.

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The Northern Territory government has reached its goal of offering remote NT solar to ten remote Aboriginal communities – saving the usage of over one million litres of diesel fuel and representing a $27 million dollar investment in renewable energy.

Remote NT Solar Overview

‘Tranche one’ of the program has been completed – according to EcoGeneration, it will generate 3.325MW at the ten remote Aboriginal communities – via the installation of 10,000 solar panels. It’s being jointly funded by ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) and the Northern Territory government; with its estimated cost over the full timeline of the program at $55m – in order to save the usage of 94 million litres of diesel fuel. The project has been managed by Power and Water and is called Solar Energy Transformation Program (SETuP).

Power and Water CEO Michael Thomson was quoted as saying “The completion of tranche one is on the trajectory to transform the way energy is supplied with hybrid solar and diesel power generation – …the state of the art installation of integrated electricity supply will reduce emissions and local pollution with fewer fuel trucks and barges visiting the communities.”

The current remote NT solar farms will provide approximately of 5000 kWh/day to power more than 570 households, with another 12 communities in line to receive panels, Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Michael Gunner has advised. Ivor Frischknecht, the ARENA CEO, said “We’ve seen the benefits of renewable energy off the grid with mining and we know Solar SETuP can deliver the same results for Aboriginal communities”.

Remote NT Solar
Remote NT Solar (source: skynews.com.au)

As the installation of solar energy in the Northern Territory grows (despite receiving an average of nine hours of sunshine every day, year round, they have been lagging behind on solar PV installations), expect to see a lot more stories like this. It’s great to see the government and ARENA helping minimise the usage of expensive and polluting diesel fuel in favour of renewable energy. Have a read about the Dubbo Solar Project if you want to read more about solar power for Aboriginal communities.

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Newbridge Solar Plant Upgrade Gets Go Ahead

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The Victorian state government has given $1 million in funding to upgrading an existing Newbridge solar plant which will create up to 70 local jobs and represents world-class solar technology.

Newbridge Solar and RayGen Resources

Newbridge Solar Plant - RayGen Resources
The Newbridge Solar Plant –
created by RayGen Resources (source: raygen.com)

The plant will be built by Blackburn-based solar technology company RayGen Resources and the funding was announced by Lily D’Ambrosio, the Energy, Envicornment and Climate Change Minister for Victoria. The funding well come from Business Victoria’s New Energy Jobs Fund and will create jobs in manufacturing, sales, product engineering, and software engineering. This represents another boon for Victorian solar which has been moving along in leaps and bounds over the last 12 months.

D’Ambrosio approved the funding this week and was quoted by the Bendigo Advertiser as saying “This is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen the exports for our growing renewables sector and deliver a positive environmental impact”.

John Lasich and Zhen Mu , along with RayGen’s new CEO, Alex Wyatt, are in charge of the Chinese solar project which is based on the pilot plant which supplied power to a Newstead organic mushroom farm. The energy generated by the new Newbridge solar farm will supply the more than enough to power the business. No word yet on when the plant will be completed but we think it will be within the next 12 months and look forward to seeing the PV Ultra technology utilised in the future.

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Zero Emissions Noosa Solar – Industrial Estate

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Noosa Solar News – Zero Emissions Noosa (ZEN) recently presented a proposal to Noosa Council to spend $100,000 on rooftop solar for businesses in the Noosaville Industrial Estate.

ZEN and the Noosaville Industrial Estate

There are approximately 300 SMEs (small to medium businesses) in the Noosaville Industrial Estate and the $100,000 grant would be drawn from the business tourism levy allowing Noosa Council to work on reaching its goal of a zero-emission organisation.

Unfortunately, ZEN president Vivien Griffin advised Energy Matters that ZEN missed the cutoff for this financial year so they will have to wait for the next to see if they’re able to gain the funding. Griffin also noted that a major setback for the cause was their inability to effectively calculate return on investment (ROI) on the panel installation – something that can vary rather wildly depending on a multitude of factors. As the price of panels and storage decreases this will become less of an issue and it seems certain that by the next financial year we’ll see a continuation of the major improvements in cost and efficacy the solar industry has experienced over the last five years. Hopefully this can help with the ROI calculations for Noosa Solar.

According to Griffin, ZEN are hoping to install an additional MW (megawatt) of PV solar on the industrial estate over the next year – citing the possibility of also applying for ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) funding.

Noosa Solar and Zero Emissions Noosa

Noosa Solar - Zero Emissions Organisational Strategy
Noosa Solar – Zero Emissions Organisational Strategy (source: noosa.qld.gov.au)

ZEN’s end goal is that “Council operations and service activities will reach zero net emissions by 2026” – an ambitious and impressive target overshadowing the federal RET by a considerable amount, albeit on a much smaller scale. The Noosa solar plan would provide additional renewable energy to the council and help with the strategy – six Council buildings and facilities have had solar power installed over the last few years. We have reached out to ZEN for specifics on these panels.

Solar Power in Queensland has been leading the charge for Australia over the last few years so it’d be great to see more initiatives like this from the local council.

Click here to view the Zero Emissions Noosa Facebook page and show your support.

Click here to view the Noosa Council Facebook page and let them know what you think!

Click here to read the “Zero Emissions Strategy” for 2016-2026, prepared by the Noosa Council.

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