Energy Storage

Over 90% of Australia’s fuel is imported – something recent geopolitical events have illustrated is a serious vulnerability. This issue was the focus of an emergency fuel security summit held yesterday in Sydney. The event was attended by a number of industry leaders and independent members and candidates who put forward solutions to tackle the devolving situation.

Japan’s Panasonic claims its new pilot solar-plus-hydrogen facility marks the first attempt to create a factory powered by 100% renewables, via the full-scale use of hydrogen.

Lightsource bp’s ambitious solar capacity target of 25 GW by 2025 is driving significant expansion of its Australian portfolio, including its most recent proposal of the 400 MW Gundary Solar Farm south of Goulburn, NSW.

With its promise of cheap, easy ‘god molecules’ flowing inexhaustibly from the ground, it’s no wonder natural hydrogen is piquing interest. Sometimes referred to as ‘gold’ or ‘white’ hydrogen, Avon McIntyre, executive director of HyTerra, an Australian company in the space, told pv magazine Australia natural hydrogen projects should have smaller carbon footprints than sprawling green hydrogen plays and, moreover, would be ready quicker. Enticing as it sounds, unknowns remain.

A partnership between Quantum Power Asia and Berlin-based ib vogt is proposing a 3.5 GW solar and storage facility in Riau, Indonesia, an archipelago of islands south of Singapore. The AUD$6.7 billion potential project aims to export the generated solar to the Singaporean city-state by 2032, meeting 8% of its electricity needs.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) final report on the future of storage presents “key learnings” from a series of six in-depth studies.

Developed by a Chinese-Swedish research group, the device is an ultra-thin chip that could be integrated into electronics such as headphones, smartwatches and telephones. It combines a Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage System (MOST) with a micro-fabricated system that includes a thermoelectric generator (TEG) with a low-dimensional material-based microelectromechanical system (MEMS).

Australia’s inventories of critical materials for batteries have seen major increases recently, with vanadium up 23%, lithium up 8%, rare earths up 4% and platinum group elements up 185% in the year to December 2020.

The device is based on a standard, two-electrode electrochemical cell containing conductive polymers, a carbon-graphene hybrid, and a non-flammable liquid electrolyte. The battery cells were tested to perform for 12,000 cycles at 100% depth of discharge.

Energy Dome’s emission-free energy storage method uses carbon dioxide in a closed loop charge/discharge cycle that can store and dispatch renewable energy onto the grid over periods from four to 24 hours.