Sustainability

The Black Summer bushfires devastated parts of the Eurobodalla region in New South Wales. Then earlier this year, the area was hit by floods. As climate change threatens to bring more severe and frequent extreme weather events, how can we help future-proof such communities?

South Australia’s Flinders University has installed 20 vehicle-to-grid (V2G) chargers to fully utilise the battery capacity of its growing electric vehicle fleet. It plans to use the distributed EV fleet to supply power to the campus grid in the evening. The initiative is supported by $350,000 (USD 220,000) of funding from the state government.

South Australia utility SA Water has energised another solar PV plant as part of a $300 million solar investment designed to save on both costs and carbon. switching on a 10.3 MW solar system at its Rocky Gully pump station near Murray Bridge in the state’s south-east.

In recent years, Longi has turned its attention to green hydrogen. Li Zhenguo, company founder and CEO, speaks with Vincent Shaw in Shanghai about the strategic shift and how coupling this technology with solar PV will be key to achieving carbon neutrality.

The Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics will receive up to $45 million in federal funding over the next eight years as it seeks to develop the next generation of efficient and ultra low-cost solar technologies.

Days after announcing it would abandon coal-fired power by the end of the decade, the Western Australian government has set an ‘ambitious’ interim emissions target in a bid to reach net zero by 2050.

In aviation news, Qantas has announced a partnership with Airbus to invest up to $285 million to establish a sustainable aviation fuel industry in Australia. Meanwhile, startup Aviation H2 says it is in the process of acquiring test engines it will modify to run on hydrogen, which are due to arrive in the next five weeks.

Resources giant Rio Tinto has officially opened what it is calling its most technologically advanced mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The Gudai-Darri iron ore mine features a 34 MW solar farm capable of meeting one-third of the facility’s energy needs.

Scientists in China have developed a new recycling process for PV modules that can recover intact silicon cells from end-of-life products, and process them back into wafers. As part of the recycling process, the wafers are purified and surface-treated, making them suitable for integration into new, high-efficiency cells and modules.

Under renewed urges from ministers to expedite market reforms, the Energy Security Board has today released a ‘high-level’ design paper for its capacity mechanism proposal, through which the agency hopes to prevent a disorderly energy transition.