Sophie Vorrath

2 weeks ago | onestepoffthegrid.com.au | Sophie Vorrath

Battery storage is becoming the new norm in solar schools, with more than 130 facilities across the country adopting storage solutions, aiming to unlock energy and emission savings and build greater resilience for their school communities. This shift is in part driven by a raft of government initiatives and worsening feed-in tariffs, which mean that exporting solar is no longer the cash cow it once was.

2 weeks ago | onestepoffthegrid.com.au | Sophie Vorrath

Federal Labor and its Western Australia state government counterpart have announced that their respective home battery incentive schemes will be merged to work in unison – but not in the way many might have hoped. Rather than allowing applicants to stack the two rebates to get a double discount on a home battery, a merging of the two schemes will instead mean around five times as many WA households will be able to access the state rebate, which ranges from between $5,000 to $7,500.

2 weeks ago | reneweconomy.com.au | Sophie Vorrath

The first of four wind turbines that will help supply up to 80 per cent renewables to the Bellevue Gold Project in Western Australia has been fully commissioned and is generating power at the remote mining site. Off-grid power specialist Zenith Energy reported the major project milestone last week, alongside the news that the turbine blades for a hybrid power station that will help power a rare earths mine had arrived at the Port of Geraldton and are being transported to site.

2 weeks ago | reneweconomy.com.au | Sophie Vorrath

Plans to transform Tasmania’s Bell Bay port into a world-leading renewable hydrogen production hub have had new life breathed into them, with Bell Bay Powerfuels tapped by the state government to take the ambitious project forward. Tasmania energy minister Nick Duigan announced over the weekend that the Abel Energy-owned Bell Bay Powerfuels would take the lead as the “provisional proponent” of the Tasmanian Green Hydrogen Hub, following a successful expressions of interest (EOI) process.

2 weeks ago | onestepoffthegrid.com.au | Sophie Vorrath

The New South Wales pricing regulator has achieved a rare feat in the modern solar age, setting a benchmark rooftop PV feed-in tariff that is higher, and not lower, than the year before. The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal last week published its solar feed-in tariff benchmark ranges – a recommendation, only, for the state’s retailers – for 2025-26 at between 4.8 and 7.3 c/kWh, up from 4.9 to 6.3 c/kWh in 2024-25.