Remote communities from the Tiwi Islands to the South Australian border are set to be connected to solar power as construction begins on the next phase of the $59 million Solar Energy Transformation Program (SETuP) project according to ARENA.

For the first time in 2017, global solar capacity grew faster than all fossil fuels combined, including coal, oil and gas-fired power stations. That’s one finding of the latest annual report on global trends in renewable energy finance, from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

The Chinese province of Anhui built a massive floating solar farm on top of an abandoned coal mine. An even larger floating solar plant will come online by May 2018. Due to rising concerns surrounding air pollution-related deaths, China is trying to invest more heavily in renewable energy projects. The new solar farms are part of the global shift away from energy generated from fossil fuels.

A solar energy storage system installed by a low-income student cooperative has reduced power bills for its tenants by around 55 per cent during its first year of operation.