Government agency Export Finance Australia will provide $220 million (USD 140 million) to help finance Liontown’s Kathleen Valley Lithium project after involvement from Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, caused its giant Albemarle deal to collapse.

Australia’s power market is experiencing the most pricing fluctuations of anywhere in the world, according to research from Rystad Energy. This volatility is a result of unplanned coal plant outages, natural disasters impacting transmission lines, and high solar penetration pushing down midday prices.

Leaders from Australian hydrogen startup Hysata are joining Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his four-day visit to the US to meet President Joe Biden. Hysata is commercialising a hydrogen electrolysis breakthrough that claims to improve efficiency by 20%.

Victorian hydrogen company Energys has unveiled its third-generation, locally-manufactured Hydrogen Fuel Cell Generators, five of which are to provide backup power for Telstra’s remote telecommunications towers as part of a Victorian pilot. The company says it is already constructing a green hydrogen generation plant too, supported by funding from the Victorian government.

Solar and storage analyst Sunwiz is forecasting 2023 set a new record for small-scale solar in Australia. Despite installations this year lagging Australia’s biggest year to date, 2021, Sunwiz Managing Director, Warwick Johnston, tells pv magazine Australia that multiple signs point to a strong Q4.

Researchers at UNSW have modelled how shifts in Australia’s future weather patterns due to climate change will impact the nation’s solar resource, including its dependability. They found solar reliability may increase parts of Eastern Australia by 2099, but the outlook worsened in Western and Northern Australia.

Falling ceramic particles less than half a millimetre in size have been used by Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, to store energy in a concentrated solar thermal system. The team recently achieved a temperature of 803°C using the process at its pilot plant in NSW.

Victoria’s High Court has deemed the Victorian government’s tax on electric vehicles “invalid”, saying Australia’s Constitution enshrines that only the Commonwealth government has the power to enforce such taxes.

The Australian Energy Regulator has rejected a community group’s challenge to the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West, or VNI West, transmission project.

US giant Albemarle Corp. has withdrawn its $6.6 billion takeover bid for Australian lithium developer Liontown Resources after Gina Rinehart, via her company Hancock Prospecting, reportedly spent $1.3 billion raising its stake in Liontown to a commanding 19.9%.