Markets

Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. Octopus Investments Australia’s Investment Director of Energy Markets, Lumi Adisa, takes a Lion King-themed deep dive into New South Wales to find out what comes after coal.

Two Australian companies, hydrogen fuel cell startup H2X and emerging renewables developer Thales New Energy, have signed an agreement with a Malaysian state-owned corporation to develop a 1.3 GW hydrogen export facility powered by hydroelectricity in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

In this week’s edition of pv magazine’s Hydrogen Stream, Australian projects took centre stage including Woodside announcing it had secured land for its H2TAS project, an MoU signed between Perth-based metals manufacturing company Unique Metals and Energy consultancy Xodus, as well as ARENA’s funding for Sun Metals zinc refinery in Townsville.

A report published by BloombergNEF for the COP26 climate change summit has listed global commitments by cities, states, provinces and nations to end the sale of new fossil-fuelled vehicles but, with 2035 estimated as the cut-off date for zero-emission roads by mid century, policymakers need to be more ambitious.

Buildings in the City of Melbourne could provide 74% of their own electricity needs if solar technology is fully integrated into roofs, walls and windows, new research from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science has found.

Sydney-based zinc-bromide battery technology company Gelion will deliver 100 MWh of energy storage to Mayur Renewables for its clean energy projects in Papua New Guinea under a new deal.

Aviation H2 today it announced it has appointed a team of engineers to fast-track its ambitions of building Australia’s first hydrogen-fuelled aeroplane. The company is, however, rather enigmatic, without a website and wholly owned by Liberty Energy Capital, which itself falls into rabbit hole of ownerships. The plan comes on the same day one of Australia’s biggest renewable hydrogen players, Fortescue Future Industries, announced it’s joined forced with Los Angeles-based Universal Hydrogen to enter the aviation space.

The International Solar Alliance and the U.K. authorities are leading a global super-grid program that seeks to connect 140 countries to round-the-clock renewable power.

Following a funding announcement from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), a $3 million feasibility study led by Port of Newcastle and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group is set to determine whether Newcastle, the world’s largest coal exporting port, has the potential for a green hydrogen hub.

After another year of record rooftop solar installations, and despite Covid-19 related lockdowns and federal political ineptitude on a level comparable to self-sabotage, Australia has soared past the three million mark and the numbers are only accelerating.