microgrid

Recent research from Thailand has shown that solar-plus-storage on floating platforms could be the cheapest option to power energy-intensive aeration systems in aquaculture projects. The battery accounts for around 54% of the capital costs, which is why system sizing would be key for economic viability.

Reliance Industries said its solar unit will buy UK-based sodium-ion battery technology provider Faradion for GBP100 million (AUD$187 million) including debt, as the Indian conglomerate pushes forward with its ambitious plan to move into the renewable energy industry.

Brisbane-based flow battery company Redflow has completed its single biggest installation to date, a 2 MWh storage system in California for biowaste technology firm Anaergia.

Western Australian miner IGO is building upon its renewable energy options at its Nova nickel operation after signing an agreement with Perth-based energy storage company VSUN Energy to trial a hybrid standalone power system backed by a vanadium redox flow battery.

The town of Marble Bar in Western Australia’s remote East Pilbara region is famed for at one time recording 100 consecutive days of temperatures exceeding 37 degrees Celsius. So it’s no wonder the town’s residents have excess solar and nowhere to put it. That is, until now, thanks to the installation of a battery energy storage system beside the town’s centralised solar farm.

Embarrassing Australia on the world stage is one of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s favourite marketing ploys. But while the federal government continues to fail its constituents, particularly those in rural communities, those rural communities themselves are taking the energy transition into their own hands, along with the ownership of their own solar generation.

EleXsys Energy’s technology enables the controlled flow of excess energy from distributed rooftop-solar generators — think large C&I organisations and microgrid-united regional townships— to help stabilise global grids as they increasingly transition to renewables. The world could feel the positives of mass transition to solar within five years.

One of Australia’s most remote settlements will soon be powered by renewable energy with Western Australia utility Horizon Power announcing construction is well progressed on a 700 kWac solar farm and a 1.78 MWh battery energy storage system being installed in Kalumburu.

Construction has begun on a manufacturing pilot project to see battery-grade nickel, cobalt and manganese for precursor battery cathode materials (PCAM) in Perth. The facility is expected to be completed in early 2022 and is one of a number of developments that will look to establish Western Australia (WA) as a materials supplier to the growing battery manufacturing industry.

Western Australia grid operator Western Power is expanding its microgrid strategy as it aims to improve the resilience and reliability of electricity supply in regional communities, calling for registrations of interest to develop a renewables-based disconnected microgrid capable of powering a small rural town.