Resources Minister Matt Canavan’s suggestion that Australia could meet its climate targets by replacing ageing power stations with emerging ‘low emission’ coal-fired technology is an unrealistic fantasy that would cost billions and set back genuine efforts to tackle global warming, the Australian Conservation Foundation said today.

China’s largest photovoltaic (PV) power station built on a fish farm officially began operation on Jan. 11, People.cn reported. Located in Cixi, Zhejiang province, the project cost 1.8 million RMB ($259,927) and covers an area of 300 hectares, with a total installed capacity of 200MW. Its average annual production capacity is expected to reach 220 million kilowatt-hours.

Aurora Solar Technologies (AST) has introduced an enhanced version of its ‘Decima’ inline measurement system for quality control of bi-facial solar cells during production. ‘Decima Gemini’ consists of a specialized pair of Decima CD measurement heads that enables the sheet resistance of the wafers' back-surface field and emitter to be measured accurately and simultaneously.

French energy giant ENGIE, the owner of the soon-to-be-closed 1,500MW Hazelwood brown coal generator in Victoria, has called for proposals for large scale solar projects in Australia.