September 2021

The development of a “world-first” marketplace designed to maximise the value of distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar PV, batteries and electric vehicles is on track with the Australian Energy Market Operator confirming it expects to start trialling the platform in early 2022.

The suitability of vanadium redox flow battery technology for Australian residential and commercial applications is set to be tested with Perth-based energy storage company VSUN Energy planning to deploy three 5 kW/30 kWh flow batteries.

Renewable energy developer Elliott Green Power is now accepting official bids for its Australian solar PV farms and expanding portfolio of battery energy storage assets as it seeks to exit the Australian market.

Scientists in the United States used machine learning to analyse maintenance reports, performance data and weather records from more than 800 solar farms located across the country. The analysis allowed them to determine which weather conditions have the biggest impact on PV generation, and to suggest the most effective ways to boost the resilience of PV installations to extreme weather events.

The storage project is linked to a 1 GW wind and solar project portfolio, 500 MW of solar distributed generation, and the construction of a gigafactory for vanadium redox flow batteries in China.

Victorian network service provider Powercor claims a major works program designed to alleviate grid congestion in areas of high rooftop solar PV penetration has boosted the approval rate for new solar connections to export excess energy to the grid by an impressive 30%.

Renewable energy developer MPower is progressing plans to establish a portfolio of up to 20 small-scale solar PV farms in Australia, confirming binding purchase agreements have been signed for two 5 MW project sites.

A market reform more than four years in the making is set to be introduced in less than 30 days with the Australian Energy Market Operator this week confirming the five-minute settlement period will come into effect on October 1, 2021.

NREL researchers developed a system that uses heated silica particles for thermal energy storage. The baseline technology is designed for a storage capacity of up to 26,000 MWh and is claimed to have a cost of of between $2 and $4 per kWh.

Scientists have demonstrated a zinc-ion battery that overcomes many of the challenges for this technology. By working with a highly-concentrated salt solution as the electrolyte, the group was able to achieve stability over more than 2,000 cycles combined with a strong electric performance. The group says that its work opens up “a viable route to developing aqueous batteries for emerging electrochemical energy storage applications.”