Markets

West Australian company Vulcan Energy Resources, backed by mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has signed a geothermal heat energy offtake agreement with a major German energy supplier, MVV Energie. Vulcan is planning to eventually secure a lithium supply from the same deep brine source in the Upper Rhine Valley, Germany.

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.

Infinite Blue Energy has announced a partnership with Indigenous-owned Boya Energy on the green hydrogen project it has planned for the 11 MW Northam solar farm east of Perth.

Increased demand and continual outages at gas and coal power plants in Queensland have seen a rise in the occurrence of extreme price spikes. The timing of these spikes, typically at peak hours between 5pm and 8pm, are seeing solar revenues soar just as the sun is setting.

Indian renewable energy developer Greenko Group has partnered with Belgium’s John Cockerill to develop a green hydrogen electrolyser factory with a capacity of 2GW per annum. The partnership will also see the two companies jointly develop large-scale green hydrogen projects in India.

To encourage industry to consider the battery mineral opportunities currently sitting in neglected heaps around the country, Geoscience Australia and its partners are developing an Atlas of Australian Mine Waste. The public database hopes to highlight the opportunity in reprocessing mining waste for new markets.

Water-from-air technology company Aqua Aerem’s Desert Bloom green hydrogen project received Major Project Status from the Northern Territory Government last year, now it has announced a partnership with Japanese energy giant Osaka Gas which not only brings the 10GW project closer to reality, but has also seen the company boost its ambitions to 20GW in light of “quickly developing demand.”

The global battery energy storage market will grow to US$10.84 billion (AU$14.54 billion) in 2026, with around two-thirds of the demand concentrated in the Asia Pacific region.

In other news, GM and Honda are jointly developing affordable EVs, the Biden administration holds an EV industry meeting, and Mercedes-Benz Energy agrees to supply EV batteries to BatteryLoop for its scalable, circular energy storage products.

Iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries has purchased three cattle stations in Western Australia’s northwest on which it plans to construct a renewable energy hub to both decarbonise its mining business and export green hydrogen and green ammonia.