Finance

US$3.1 billion (AU$4.4 billion) is available to increase production of American-made batteries, with a separate US$60 million (AU$85 million) to support second-life applications for used EV batteries, along with development of processes for recycling materials back into the battery supply chain.

Fortescue Future Industries continues to advance its green energy ambitions, announcing it will provide new funding for Dutch solar PV module maker HyET Solar in a move designed to accelerate a planned expansion of the company’s manufacturing plant in The Netherlands.

Enphase expects the volume of business generated to rise again for the April-June period, accompanied by another bump in battery shipments.

Australian technology billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has become the single largest shareholder in AGL after Grok Ventures, the private investment company he owns with wife Annie, bought an 11.28% stake in the public company last night. The move appears to progress the billionaire’s plan to use the free market to force the decarbonisation of Australia’s biggest emitter from the inside out. In other words, the world’s largest single decarbonisation project is back on.

Shell has signed an agreement to acquire Solenergi Power, an Actis company that owns 100% of Indian developer Sprng Energy. The transaction, valued at US$1.55 billion (AU$2.2 billion), is expected to close later this year.

Global investment manager Igneo Infrastructure Partners will acquire Elliot Green Power, along with its solar and storage portfolio, via its Australian business, Atmos Renewables.

Australia’s Macquarie is leading a consortium that has reportedly tabled a €2.5 billion ($3.65 billion) bid for a clean energy business formed by French private equity houses InfraVia and Eurazeo.

TBEA-owned Xinte Energy says it cannot produce polysilicon quickly enough to meet demand and wants shareholders to back its bid to quadruple its manufacturing capacity by mid 2024.

Australia’s most powerful energy industry participants have actively resisted the move to a low-carbon economy. Now, the country known as a sandbox for technology has become a sandbox for a new model for decarbonisation – one which has seen billionaires and giant fund managers sidestep politics to use the free market in strategic and potentially disruptive ways. pv magazine Australia’s Bella Peacock reports.

A major Western Australian mine targeting the global vanadium battery market was this week found to be bankable, with feasibility studies confirming the project’s “strong commercial case for development,” its owner Australian Vanadium Limited said.