Markets

Following approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board in November, the long-awaited sale of grid-operator Spark Infrastructure to a North American consortium led by private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has been completed via a $5.2 billion “all-cash transaction”.

As Australia stares down a deluge of worn out solar panels, recycling – and indeed upcycling – programs are grinding into gear. In Victoria, a site has been found for Australia’s first facility to recover and reuse solar module materials, while Reclaim PV has extended its manufacturer partner and pickup location lists.

The Queensland government has highlighted its state attracted as much as $26 billion worth of “new energy economy projects”, according to new national resources reports. The federal government, on the other hand, used the reports to pay tribute almost exclusively to coal, with resources minister Keith Pitt dubbing it a “star”.

Brisbane-based flow battery company Redflow has completed its single biggest installation to date, a 2 MWh storage system in California for biowaste technology firm Anaergia.

The Chinese bifacial module maker has commissioned a 1.5 GW TOPCon cell factory in China’s Zhejiang province, which raised its total TOPCon cell capacity to 3.6 GW. Another 16 GW facility is being planned for the Shanxi province.

Green hydrogen can play a vital role in decarbonising the economy and enabling countries to reach net-zero emissions. The economics of producing green hydrogen from electrolysis are maturing as developers scramble to meet expected future demand. Everoze partner Nicolas Chouleur and Neoen hydrogen expert Sacha Lepoutre discuss a case study that shows how stacking different revenue streams could improve the economics of renewable energy projects.

Urban transportation is key to modern civilization. It has enabled humans to travel long distances and is one of the building blocks of industry and leisure. But it has come at a cost. In the first quarter of 2022, pv magazine’s UP Initiative will focus on the rise of e-mobility. We will examine urban transportation and the role electric vehicles, trains, and two- and three-wheelers can play in greening the electricity grid. In addition to technological innovation, we will also investigate market projections, the policies and infrastructure required, and the role solar and storage will play in taking this nascent industry full throttle.

Australian green energy company Port Anthony Renewables’ oversubscribed capital raising exercise has put a fresh $3 million directly into its commercial scale hydrogen precinct ahead of a planned Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listing next year. Meanwhile, Longi reportedly plans to build 1.5 GW of production capacity of electrolysers next year, up from 500 MW today.

The transaction, for which Shell did not reveal the purchase price, will see the energy company pick up a U.S. project development pipeline which reportedly runs to more than 18 GW of solar generation and energy storage capacity across 26 states.

Australia’s energy system was already a complex web, but it’s now transforming into the work of a labyrinth spider, which build tunnels so complicated and thick they look like white silk vortexes. You get the picture. Or you will from reading the Generator Insights 2021 report published today.