Technology

Australian green energy company Port Anthony Renewables’ oversubscribed capital raising exercise has put a fresh $3 million directly into its commercial scale hydrogen precinct ahead of a planned Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listing next year. Meanwhile, Longi reportedly plans to build 1.5 GW of production capacity of electrolysers next year, up from 500 MW today.

Australia’s energy system was already a complex web, but it’s now transforming into the work of a labyrinth spider, which build tunnels so complicated and thick they look like white silk vortexes. You get the picture. Or you will from reading the Generator Insights 2021 report published today.

A U.S.-Israeli consortium is developing synchroinverters – inverters that mimic a synchronous generator and are able to actively respond to the grid’s frequency changes while stabilising the voltage. The new devices are expected to do this simultaneously and provide grid stability services in less than 16.67 milliseconds.

With Scottish company Smarter Grid Solutions having already seen its software deployed in the U.K., a pilot project in New York State has been a resounding success for a grid solution the NREL has predicted could unlock swathes of network capacity without the need for new power lines.

An Italian company has developed a system that can store energy from wind, solar and grid electricity by compressing and using CO2 without any emissions. The system draws CO2 from an inflatable atmospheric gas holder, stores it, and uses it to produce power again, when demand for stored energy arises.

Hitachi Energy has won Northern Territory Labor’s tender for the Darwin-Katherine ‘Big Battery’, which is expected to unlock more capacity for residential and industrial PV, generate cost savings of $9.8 million and pay for itself in approximately five years.

New research from Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson seeks to remove any doubts about grid stability in a world powered entirely by renewable energy. The latest study models 100% wind water and solar powered grids across the United States, finding no risk of blackouts in any region and also broad benefits in cost reduction, job creation and land use.

Scientists in the United States developed a computer simulator that can calculate the conversion efficiency of different solar cell materials and configurations – helping to guide research and optimisation of new cell designs. The simulator is available to researchers as an open-source tool to save time and spot the best opportunities for optimisation of any given approach.

The hype surrounding green hydrogen is real, but does the cost-reduction outlook for its production technologies live up to it? Christian Roselund looks at the technology, transportation, application and enabling policies behind the promising green energy carrier.

China is once again the focus of attention across the global solar PV industry. The country’s manufacturers have had a turbulent 2021, but domestic demand remains strong, particularly from the booming residential rooftop segment. Despite the supply challenges, China will likely reach 50 GW this year and possibly even 100 GW next year. Given the dynamic market and policy landscape, pv magazine publisher Eckhart K. Gouras recently caught up with long-time China solar expert Frank Haugwitz, the founder of the Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory (AECEA).