Energy Storage

The rollout of rooftop solar in the remote coastal town of Broome in northern Western Australia is set to get a boost with state-owned regional energy provider Horizon Power installing two centralised community batteries that are expected to unlock more than 1,400kW of solar PV hosting capacity.

Australia’s biggest power producer AGL has secured planning approval for a 500MW/2GWh grid-connected utility scale battery to be developed at the site of its coal-fired Liddell power plant in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

Researchers in Spain have designed a pumped thermal energy storage system that uses supercritical carbon dioxide as a heat pump and a heat engine. The proposed system is claimed to achieve an efficiency of 80.26% and an LCOS of €0.116/kWh (AU$0.18/KWh)

A report published by IRENA hints the world’s politicians will have to get to work immediately to avoid another generation of fossil fuel-fired hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol plants being set up to run into the second half of the century.

Australian redox flow battery manufacturer Redflow’s push into the United States market has received a major boost with the company announcing it will work with California-based biowaste technology firm Anaergia on the installation of a solar and 5.5-6MWh battery energy storage solution.

For short-term storage in a 100% renewables grid, thermal energy storage located at concentrating solar power plants could compete with batteries, found a study using an idealised grid model. Seasonal storage needs could best be met with power-to-gas-to-power technology.

German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has made public its plans partner with Primobius, a 50:50 joint venture between West Australian company Neometals and Germany’s SMS Group. Mercedes has said its intention is to build a 2,500 tonne per year lithium-ion battery recycling plant in southern Germany with Primobius as its technology partner.

Federal Labor has promised to allocate $22 million to help establish the Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct being developed in northern Queensland if it wins the election in May.

A multibillion-dollar solar, battery storage, wind and potentially green hydrogen project in Victoria’s Gippsland region is moving forward after getting backing from superfund Hostplus. Originally proposed by Solis Renewable Energy, the project is now owned by Octopus Australia as part of its joint venture with CFEC.

The International Renewable Energy Agency has outlined a series of technical considerations for green hydrogen tracking systems. According to the document, a degree of flexibility should be taken into account in the short term to ensure that the nascent green hydrogen market can develop.