This week in solar: solar to decarbonise steel, solar garden, and more

1. Steel yourselves, Swinburne researcher utilises solar to decarbonise steel

Swinburne PhD candidate Suneeti Purohit’s remarkable double innovation utilises solar power to decarbonise the steel industry and save iron ore miners money.

2. Australia’s first “solar garden” bears fruit for NSW community housing tenants

Australia’s first “solar garden,” a 35kW communal solar PV array in Lismore, New South Wales, has been completed and is delivering energy savings to 19 social housing tenants, four community organisations and North Coast Community Housing.

3. ClearVue clears way to sell Australian solar glass technology in Europe

ClearVue’s nano-technology, developed in conjunction with the Electron Science Research Institute (ESRI) at Edith Cowan University, generates electricity from a flat, clear sheet of glass while maintaining transparency.

4. Neural networks improving solar power forecasting

An international research team has developed a new approach for solar power forecasting that combines neural networks and pattern sequences.

5. Power prices forecast to slide in next three years, with increasing supplies of renewable energy a primary driver

Power prices are forecast to fall in most Australian states and territories over the next three years, with energy users in Queensland set to see the biggest benefit.

6. Which parts of Australia deliver the cheapest wind and solar?

Wind and solar are clearly the cheapest form of new electricity generation in Australia. But where in Australia is wind and solar the cheapest to produce – taking into account the actual resource, the transmission costs, and the installation costs.

7. Australia needs to triple renewable energy plants by 2040 to replace coal power plants set to close

Australia needs dozens more renewable energy projects to offset the loss of more than 60 per cent of Australian coal power plants that will close over the next two decades, the energy market operator has forecast.

8. ARENA targets solar panel recycling in new $15m funding round

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has launched a $15 million funding round to support projects aimed at cutting the cost and amount of waste created by solar panels that have reached the end of their working lives.