The Australian parliament's upper house Senate on Thursday postponed a debate on renewable energy laws until August at the earliest, delaying the government’s plans passing the laws by the end of June.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will gain a new member in the form of Australia, increasing the body's influence as the Rudd Government plans to invest approximately AS$4.5 billion on renewable and clean energy initiatives. A key boost to solar has also been planned, which will see AS$1.6 billion spent on projects to generate 1GW and above of energy starting in 2010. The Rudd Government said it was committed to ensuring that 20% of Australia's electricity...
SunPower Corp. has completed construction of its 350kW solar power installation on the Crowne Plaza Hotel rooftop in Alice Springs, Australia, the largest roof-mounted solar power system on the continent. Invest North Pty Ltd. is the owner of the project.
BP Solar’s 50MW photovoltaic cell and module manufacturing plant in Sydney Olympic Park, Australia is to close at the end of March 2009, as the company focuses production at larger scale facilities in other parts of the world. Approximately 200 jobs will be affected by the closure, but BP Solar said it would continue to market and sell its solar systems in the country.
Spark Solar Australia, a solar cell manufacturer, has announced that it has completed its first round of funding for the development of a new, $70 million solar cell manufacturing facility in the Canberra region. The factory, which will produce approximately 19 million solar cells per annum, the majority of which will be exported to Germany, will also see the creation of close to 115 jobs for the region.
In this contributed blog for PV Tech, Dr KT Tan, CTO of Viridian Solar, argues that DC connectors, though among the cheapest components in a PV installation, sit in the same dangerous blind spot as the low-cost parts blamed for catastrophic engineering failures like the Challenger and Columbia disasters.
ESR, a Singapore-headquartered real asset owner and manager focused on logistics real estate and data centres, has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Aquila Clean Energy APAC.
