Technology

The second phase of the proposed 250 MW virtual power plant will see Tesla Powerwall batteries and solar panels installed on 1,000 South Australian households.

Iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group will invest $20 million into hydrogen research at Australian national science agency CSIRO’s Brisbane laboratories. The partnership aims to develop new technologies, create jobs, and capitalise on the economic opportunities associated with hydrogen.

A University of Michigan team hopes to offer a 15% efficient solar window product, which allows 50% of the light through. It has received US$1.3 million from the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office to develop the idea further.

As 2.1 GW of new capacity – mostly wind, solar and storage – has come online in the previous year, AEMO has sourced much less additional reserves than last year to manage potential high risk scenarios that typically occur in summer. Over the next two years, the market operator expects 6 GW of new wind and solar capacity to be connected to the grid, which will alleviate the short-term risk of involuntary load shedding during summer peak periods.

Australian developers Energy Estate and MirusWind have proposed a massive renewable energy hub in New South Wales. The project will combine wind and solar energy generation with pumped hydro storage and other storage options to provide up to 4 GW of new clean generation.

A team of researchers from Germany’s Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg has developed a new approach to perovskite cell production, which they say could result in better stability and longer lifetimes. The team also made detailed observation of the perovskite’s formation and decay, which could help to inform further research into high performance solar cells.

Companies keen to offset their carbon emissions will be able to purchase renewable energy certificates at Singapore’s first blockchain-powered marketplace, launched by electricity provider SP Group.

The New South Wales government is set to accelerate $2.5 billion worth of transmission projects in order to address grid bottlenecks and unlock low-cost, low-emission generation in new areas of the state. As part of its grid transformation plan, NSW will boost connections with its neighboring states and bring forward the Snowy Hydro scheme.

Alice Springs, the solar capital of Australia, has welcomed its first big battery. The 5 MW energy storage system is projected to double the share of solar in the local grid, which can currently supply up to 40% of the Alice Springs’ power needs.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has significantly increased its forecast for global deployment of behind-the-meter and grid-scale batteries from now to 2040. The research company sees Australia among nine markets that will be driving this trend, as the economic case for batteries becomes unstoppable.