A Western Australian company’s innovative shark detection system, powered by solar energy, will help protect City Beach in Perth this summer.

It was just a few years ago, at the height of the debate about the fairness of solar feed-in tariffs, when we made fun of the Queensland Competition Authority’s extraordinary attempts to protect the interest of the government-owned networks.

Queensland’s largest solar power plant to date, the 25MW Barcaldine Regional Community Solar Farm, has begun generating and feeding electricity into the grid – just months after construction started on the project in July, and two months ahead of schedule.

Finally, some good news for solar households. After years of being wound back to the price of coal, solar feed in tariffs are moving up again – at least in some areas – driven by competition by newly established retailers challenging the incumbent big three.