Markets

Western Australian vanadium explorer Technology Metals Australia and Japanese vanadium redox flow battery producer LE System have decided to tighten their relationship with an expanded Memorandum of Understanding that could see the construction of Australia’s first fully integrated vanadium electrolyte plant proximate to renewable energy hubs and major Australian population centres.

Fortescue Future Industries has acquired Williams Advanced Engineering for $310 million as it looks to capitalise on its critical battery technology to cut emissions from its mining vehicles. An offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 Team, Williams Advanced Engineering has already helped to develop an electric mining haul truck for Fortescue in 2021.

According to Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory (AECEA), this huge capacity may not be met by actual demand in the global market. Furthermore, the consultancy reveals that solar module prices should reach a price level of up to RMB 1.75 (US$028)/W by the second half of the year, and that in 2021 new PV additions totalled 53 GW with more than half of this capacity being delivered by distributed generation.

The Suiso Frontier cargo vessel docked at Victoria’s Port of Hastings on Friday to take on the world’s first shipment of liquid hydrogen. The ship’s arrival is a landmark for the Japanese-Australian Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain pilot project, which sees liquefied hydrogen generated from brown coal, and an engineering milestone in itself. But while the Australian government describes the product as “clean”, experts maintain that carbon capture and storage technology has proven only to be an expensive failure.

Philip Shen, managing director of ROTH Capital Partners, hosted top analysts from PV InfoLink to discuss their outlook on pricing, supply and demand at each step in the solar value chain.

Electric vehicle giant Tesla has inked an offtake deal with Australian miner Syrah Resources to supply battery-ready graphite as concerns over raw materials shortages continue.

For just shy of a week leading up to December 29, South Australia sourced an average of 101% of its electricity demand from renewable energy.

The Philippines arm of Australian renewable developer Maoneng has completed a 202.4 kWp installation on the rooftop of the Wesleyan University Philippines.

India’s production-linked incentive scheme for advance-chemistry battery cell production has received bids for 2.6 times more than the 50 GWh of manufacturing capacity it plans to allocate.

Sydney-based solar pioneer 5B has launched a $33.4 million tech innovation program, including a $14 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, designed to accelerate the delivery of ultra low cost solar. While a majority of the investment is portioned off for an advanced manufacturing pilot line, approximately a third of the available funds will be used to deliver GPS-guided solar deployment robots.