Energy Management Systems

With manufacturing ramping up year by year and policies already looking to get ahead of the large volumes of end-of-life products, the landscape for lithium-ion battery recycling is rapidly changing. pv magazine recently spoke with Mari Lundström, associate professor of chemical and metallurgical engineering at Aalto University, to find out what is needed on the research side for the effective recycling of batteries.

Melbourne-based company carbontrack has secured $877,000 in funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its energy management technology. The funding comes in part from industry and in part from the federal government.

Patrick Matweew, CEO of Australian startup Luceo Energy, is fully aware grid digitalisation stirs fervour in the hearts of few. It is, nonetheless, perhaps the single most important step in realising our clean energy future. “It’s not spoken about enough because it sits in that little niche. There might be other things that are a little bit more sexy, but this is really where the fundamentals get put in place to enable [everything else],” he told pv magazine Australia. 


Producing nutrient-rich microbes with solar PV has the potential to produce more food with fewer resources, according to a German research group that modelled the large-scale production of microbial biomass by combining ground-mounted photovoltaics, air, water, and nutrients.

South Korean company LG Energy Solution has partnered with Australian fintech financier Humm Group and renewable energy retailer Diamond Energy to provide customers with Virtual Power Plant platform. Virtual power plants (VPPs) are gaining momentum in Australia as a way to decrease buyback time on home batteries and potentially add stabilisation services to the grid.

The Swiss group has acquired an integrated solar roof system solution from an unidentified German engineering service provider for this purpose. The aim is grow this sector from a niche market.

Solar PV is an important contributor to all energy scenarios presented in AEMO’s latest “Input, Assumptions and Scenarios Report,” but what’s the best possible outcome it can enable?

Indonesia, the second-biggest coal exporter in the world, is now taking more steps to reduce its dependency on “black gold” as it starts to consider clean energy.

The time is now for the energy consumer, says Anna Bruce, as energy “prosumers” produce, consume, and provide electricity and grid services in previously unimagined ways. Bruce, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales’ School of Solar Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE), leads work on the role of distributed energy resources in the energy transition, analysing firsthand the dizzying level of complexity it brings.

The federal government has allocated $25.6 million to support 20 microgrid feasibility studies, including in communities affected by the Black Summer bushfires, which left regions without power for weeks.