Utility Scale Storage

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has decided to give energy businesses an extra three months to prepare the IT overhaul necessary for the five-minute settlement market reform. The decision comes in response to concerns that the unprecedented impacts of Covid-19 necessitated extra breathing space.

A key lithium-ion battery cathode material could be produced in Western Australia, a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) feasibility study has found. The study, released by the WA state government today, investigated whether superior nickel-rich nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) can be produced cost effectively and sustainably in the state in which nine of the ten mineral elements required for lithium-ion battery cells are present.

Scientists led by MIT have suggested chitin, a carbon and nitrogen-rich material made from waste shrimp shells, could produce sustainable electrodes for vanadium redox flow batteries and other energy storage technologies.

A New Safe and Reliable Energy Storage and Conversion Technologies Research Hub is one of five grant recipients of the Australian Research Council’s funding for Industrial Transformation. The Hub will seek to develop new technologies in energy storage to eliminate the risk of fire, as well as addressing the environmental impact of current technologies. 

Energy storage is in high demand, to help manage a growing proportion of renewable energy in global electricity grids, to free off-grid communities from the tyranny of diesel, and to enable the aspirations of people not yet connected to a power supply. These two promising technologies have reached important milestones…

Every crisis is a crossroads, and Australia is certainly at a crossroads. This week, a host of climate, development and investment leaders are backing Beyond Zero Emission’s green scaffolded Million Jobs Plan of Covid-19 economic recovery.

Infigen Energy on Tuesday recommended a revised offer from Iberdrola to its shareholders, after the Spanish renewable energy giant waived conditions of its takeover bid.

While investor appetite for large-scale battery storage is rapidly growing, market arrangements need to be amended to streamline the integration and operation of big batteries on the National Electricity Market, finds an analysis by the Clean Energy Council.

French renewables developer Neoen has announced that final testing of the expanded 150 MW Hornsdale Power Reserve has kicked off. If the tests run smoothly, the extra power will be available to the market within weeks.

A massive solar+storage project nearby Uralla in the New England region of New South Wales has locked in a grid connection agreement with Transgrid.