Utility Scale Storage

Aussie company Vast Solar wins Technology Innovation Award at the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) SolarPACES 2019.

A massive green hydrogen production project has been unveiled for Western Australia with Siemens on board as technology partner. The project location is touted as Australia’s best for combined solar and wind generation potential.

Among 31 dispatchable electricity projects unveiled this week under the NSW Emerging Energy Program, utility-scale battery storage accounted for a bulk of proposals. Four big batteries have been awarded funds for pre-investment studies, and another ten have been shortlisted for capital funding.

The devices, developed by a European research team, are said to have twice the energy density of conventional aluminum devices. The scientists used a cathode made of anthraquinone, instead of one based on graphene, increasing energy density.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union is recommending an overhaul of policies to promote manufacturing in regional Australia along with a major push to create new jobs in a range of industries, including lithium batteries, green hydrogen and renewables.

iSwitch, Singapore’s largest green energy retailer, and one of the city-state’s top three retailers overall, has emerged as the first potential customer for the $25 billion Sun Cable Project. This pledge is the second significant boost for the project in the last week after tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes declared he would help fund the project.

A 6 MW solar plant and 5 MW/2.5 MWh storage system are set to increase the share of renewable electricity on the Pacific island of Nauru from 3% to 47%. The $27 million project is being supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

When Sony first commercially introduced lithium-ion batteries in 1991, the industry recognized their potential to revolutionize portable electronics. Ever since, there have been countless efforts to improve the technology, with many researchers focusing on energy density and longevity, in line with demand from emerging applications such as electric vehicles (EVs) and on-grid energy storage. Julian Jansen and Youmin Rong of IHS Markit discuss the effect of safety concerns on this rapidly growing global market.

The Sydney-based developer has raised funding for the development of a 30 MW CSP project which will be collocated with a 20 MW PV plant. The company’s innovative technology, which uses sodium as a heat transfer fluid to capture concentrated solar energy that can then be stored and used on-demand on the utility-scale, has earned Vast Solar an international award for dispatchable renewable energy technology.

Pumped hydro and battery-storage projects took the lion’s share of feasibility-study grants today awarded under the NSW Emerging Energy Program. Alongside VPP proposals, they feature also in the shortlist of 21 projects now in the running for capital funding.