Strategic Alliances

Australia is among more than 100 countries that have committed to triple the world’s renewable energy generation capacity within six years, signing a pledge on the sidelines of the United Nation’s COP28 climate summit being staged in the United Arab Emirates.

Through a co-funding deal with Victoria’s newly revived SEC, Equis Development has reached financial close and begun construction on phase 1 of its giant 1.2 GW Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub. Plans for the hub, which includes gigawatt hours of storage, seem to have shifted somewhat, with phase 1 now three independent batteries of 200 MW with either two- or four-hours of storage.

Brisbane-based electric vehicle charging company Tritium has been involved in a whirlwind of activity this week as it fends off being thrown off Nasdaq, sets about closing its manufacturing in Brisbane and courts new investors. Tritium has pioneered standards in fast charging not only for electric cars but also solutions for trucks and speciality vehicles. Chargers from Tritium went into operation today for container tractors at the Port of Long Beach, California.

Sunshine Hydro and project partner Energy Estate have signed an agreement to give First Nations stakeholders a 20% equity option in the companies’ Djandori Gung-i Superhybrid project at Miriam Vale, Queensland. The project proposes to deliver up to 600 MW of pumped hydro capacity and up to 300 MW of hydrogen electrolysers.

Australian thermal storage company, Graphite Energy, has broken ground on its Lake Cargelligo facility in New South Wales which aims to demonstrate how renewable energy and agriculture can coexist through agrivoltaic and green house systems.

Origin Energy has delayed the vote on its almost $20 billion (USD 12.85 billion) takeover bid until next month after receiving a revised offer from the Brookfield-led consortium that is hoping to acquire the Australian energy generator and retailer.

Extreme weather is a growing risk to solar farms. Future-proofing through advanced technologies, leveraging data from novel sources, and by building both collaboration and acceptance of risk is vital, but rarely achieved today for a number of reasons. Insurers, lenders, developers, contractors and manufacturers come together here to discuss solutions to the intractable problem of weather risk.

Danish investment group Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has tapped Canadian PV and battery manufacturing heavyweight Canadian Solar to provide the energy storage solution for the first of the multiple large-scale battery projects it has planned for Australia.

Superannuation fund Rest has announced it will invest $1 billion (655 million) into Australian-owned renewable energy investor and developer, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners. The fund has a particular eye to green data storage centres.

Australian hydrogen project developer Abel Energy has selected UK firm Johnson Matthey and US company SunGas Renewables in the design of its flagship green hydrogen and methanol project at Bell Bay in northern Tasmania.