Energy Management Systems

China’s largest state-owned grid operator and power utility plans to deploy the world’s biggest battery fleet and almost quadruple its pumped hydro storage by 2030, thus supporting the nation’s switch to renewable energy sources.

The potential early retirement of Eraring has been the talk of the market the past week. Many of our customers have been asking what the impacts of the retirement might be on the acceleration or development of new renewable capacity in NSW and potential storage projects. In this Chart of the week, we look at the effect of the lost generation from Eraring and how that capacity might be filled.

Australian concentrated solar thermal power company Vast Solar has been shortlisted as a finalist for BNEF’s Pioneers 2022 program.

Australia’s first national battery recycling scheme, B-cycle, launched today giving Australians the opportunity to drop their spent household batteries at a collections bins in supermarkets, stores and community clubs across the country. 

Australia has hit a historic milestone, reaching 25GW of installed solar. As the Australian PV Institute noted on Monday, that’s more solar per capita than anywhere else in the world.

The company behind bill management platform 1bill on Monday announced it will invest more than $2 million in the energy software company Accurassi. The investment will see Accurassi build a platform for energy retailers to accelerate the transition to green energy.

After the deluge of announcements last year, 2022 will see the trickle of big batteries actually operating in Australia turn to a flood. According to Rystad Energy, the country’s battery capacity is set to double before the year is out.

Once thought of in a niche sense, the solar-water nexus is a rapidly expanding network of applications. They include practical tools capable of solving persistent issues like water scarcity, as well as newly pressing issues like overcoming the water challenge of green hydrogen production. Blake Matich looks at such applications here in Australia and abroad.

Long thought of as adversaries to renewable energy, fossil fuel assets and infrastructure also present opportunities for solar, its green-hydrogen output, and smart energy storage. Natalie Filatoff reports on the opportunities and approaches the miners are taking.

Gold developer Calidus Resources has become the latest miner to decarbonise its Western Australian operations by installing a 19 MW hybrid solar PV-gas power system which in future could be up to a quarter fuelled by hydrogen.