Sustainability

The Victorian government will fund a floating solar project, an initiative to locally manufacture solar batteries, and install a portable renewable energy system for community services during emergencies as part of its Latrobe Valley program.

With senators having called for plantation-wide solar powered pumping projects, funded by public money, the country’s National Irrigation Administration has agreed and said it wants to embrace floating solar facilities too.

Origin Energy has announced plans for a potential Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub underpinned by a deal it’s made with mining and infrastructure company Orica.

The realisation of biodegradable batteries is a step closer thanks to research from South Australia’s Flinders University, which has developed a 2.8V organic polymer battery. While this battery was made from synthetic polymers, research lead Dr Zhongfan Jia told pv magazine Australia the team’s future iterations will source “materials directly from nature” saying this promises to reduce waste and reliance on mined materials and could have novel applications in fields like biotech.

Climatic trends, extreme conditions and sea level rise are already hitting many of Australia’s ecosystems, industries and cities hard. As climate change intensifies, we are now seeing cascading and compounding impacts and risks, including where extreme events coincide. These are placing even greater pressure on our ability to respond.

What can wave energy converters do that no other form of renewable energy can? Well, they can remove waves’ energy. For a country like Australia, where much of our population and wealth is concentrated on coastlines evermore frequently battered by extreme weather, this proposition is particularly attractive. Especially if the technology is able to offer both protection and green electricity without radically altering marine ecosystems and aesthetics. “No one has looked at what we’re looking at before: combining power generation with coastal protection and trying to control it,” Professor Richard Manasseh told pv magazine Australia.

The famous Melbourne Cricket Ground is claiming an Australian first with energy retailer EnergyAustralia saying the iconic sports ground in the Victorian capital is the first major stadium in the nation to be run entirely on 100% renewable power.

Queensland will soon be home to two solar recycling and materials recovery plants after Solar Recovery Corporation announced its partnership with La Mia Energia, an Italian consortium which has developed a panel recycling process it claims can recover up to 99% of raw materials. The partnering companies are planning to expand across Australia in the next two years.

AGL has this morning rejected an “unsolicited” $8 billion takeover bid from software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures and Canadian fund manager Brookfield. Cannon-Brookes described the consortium as “disappointed” by AGL’s decision, saying it will continue to “move forward” with the bid which would dramatically accelerate coal retirements in Australia.

The wide-open spaces of the Australian outback make it ripe for solar development, but doing so without the true inclusion of Indigenous communities may repeat the mistakes made by resource extraction companies in the past. However, Indigenous-led companies and an innovative new initiative are looking to put power and ownership into the hands of the land’s traditional owners, reports pv magazine Australia’s Bella Peacock.