Australia’s solar boom hits turbulence, as politics confounds smooth transition July, 2009: Peter Garrett, Australia’s current environment minister and the long-time frontman of Australian progressive rock band Midnight Oil, once sang a catchy refrain that began with the words, »The time has come....« SunPower contributes to world’s first solar-diesel hybrid using flywheel technology January, 2009: When it comes to energy storage from large PV systems, it may soon be time for batteries to move aside. Australian feed-in tariff supporters go after the hearts – and votes – of an unsympathetic ruling party October, 2008: With the ruling Labor government opposed to a gross national feed-in tariff, the parliamentary survival of the country’s last-best hope for a PV market hangs in the balance. While proponents may have the votes in the Senate, passage in the lower house will depend on how many ­Laborites can be convinced to follow their conscience – and not their ­coal-focused leaders. Falling for PV – and the F-word August, 2008: In a country where King Coal reigns, the plight of Australia’s PV industry, reflected by an embarrassingly small domestic market, has led to several states proposing questionable feed-in tariffs, a promise by the ruling Labor government to »harmonize« them, and the Green Party to introduce its own national scheme. But instead of concentrating on this potential breakthrough, most eyes seem focused on the fate of an inconsequential PV rebate. As Labor takes over reigns in Australia, campaign noises for solar could get louder April, 2008: To refer to Australia as »Down Under« is to describe the country‘s PV market of less than 10 MW per year. But with the changing of the guard in Australian politics as Labor ousted the Liberal coalition in late November, the newcomers‘ solar campaign promises appear to have given PV its best-ever hope of finally taking off – maybe. Has Australia's chance at a world-beating industry been beaten? November, 2006: Adelaide and Townsville have been named Australia's first two of four Solar Cities. But as grand as the name sounds, the scheme seems to be anything but – currently with just 3 MW promised by 2013. Solco hires new CEO and restructures in gambit to turn profitable May, 2006: Following a number of top management resignations and a semi-annual report revealing increased revenues but tumbling profits, Australian-headquartered PV, solar pump, and solar hot water firm Solco Ltd. has hired a new CEO. Prime Solar still pushing 2 MW installation in Western Australia May, 2006: Prime Solar Pty Ltd., a South Perth-based Australian PV company that claims it is on the verge of signing an agreement to produce solar-grade wafers in Germany for Q-Cells AG (see article, p. 14), says it hopes to start construction of a 2 MW very large scale PV installation in Perenjori, Western Australia (see PI 12/2005, p. 62) as early as the first quarter of 2007. Australian plan for 2 MW PV system faces tough federal response December, 2005: An earlier proposal for a 10 MW pilot PV project, potentially leading to a 1 GW very large-scale PV (VLS-PV) installation in Western Australia's desert (see PI 10/2004, p. 39), has been scaled back by 80 percent to 2 MW. BP Solar receives order close to 2 MW from Australian distributor November, 2005: On Sept. 26, RFI Industries Pty Ltd of New South Wales, Australia, announced that it placed a $10 million AUD ($7.62 million USD) order for about 1.8 MW of panels from BP Solar Australia.  back