Energy Storage

Australia’s Federal Government has given ‘major project status’ to ASX-listed Australian Vanadium’s namesake project located in the Murchison province in Western Australia.

A vanadium redox flow battery will be installed at a family-owned apple orchard located in Pakenham on the edge of the Gippsland region to complement onsite solar.

Plans to develop a 18 GWh lithium-ion battery factory in northern Queensland have received a major boost with the appointment of National Australia Bank as financial adviser. With the feasibility study nearing completion, project proponents expect the development application to be submitted to Townsville City Council over the coming months.

The Distributed Energy Resource (DER) laboratory “DER-Lab” will provide an environment for safe testing of new technologies including monitoring and communication devices, smart controllers, aggregation (e.g. Virtual Power Plant), market participation software and other innovative new products.

The Queensland government has pledged to support Genex’s project at Kidston with up to $132 million. The funding will be used to build a single circuit transmission line and connect a massive pumped hydro project with the main grid, unlocking additional stages for the clean energy hub, including up to 270 MW of additional solar and up to 150 MW of wind.

The Australian Renewable Energy Arena (ARENA) has approved up to $9.41 million in conditional funding to Hazer Group for the construction and operation of a groundbreaking hydrogen production facility in Munster, Western Australia. The project is utilizing biogas produced at the treatment plant as feedstock to produce hydrogen and graphite.

Australian Vanadium and Metrowest Power Systems have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to facilitate energy storage opportunities using vanadium redox flow battery technology.

ANZ has extended its collaboration with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, committing to facilitating a further $100 million of finance to help Australian businesses cut energy costs and reduce carbon emissions. Under the scheme, the bank is offering financial discounts for upgrades and new investments in solar PV, energy storage, EVs and other technologies.

The conclusion of AEMO’s 2019 planning and forecasting consultation brings revised approaches to the 2019-20 Integrated System Plan: three new renewable energy zones reflect resource and generator interest; the forecasting of distributed energy resources has been reframed; and a fifth and critical planning scenario has emerged. 

The energy storage market is set to be the latest affected by Trump’s trade war, and lithium-ion batteries were not included in a group of Chinese imports where tariffs will be delayed until December 15.