Technology

Large-scale renewable energy generators, including wind and solar PV farms will ramp up to 140 GW from the current 15 GW, more than doubling every decade to 2050 while rooftop solar is expected to increase from 15 GW to 70 GW over the same period as the “accelerating” transformation of Australia’s energy sector continues.

The impression of another big battery being installed on the site of one of Australia’s recently decommissioned “coal clunkers” was lost on few. Battery system provider Fluence says the Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System’s business case was bolstered by recent reforms and new technology to take advantage of rapidly changing wholesale electricity market dynamics.

Scientists have developed a new model based on fault tree analysis to evaluate the frequency of fires caused by rooftop PV systems and assess system safety and reliability. They claim that the new tool has the potential to identify fault linkages in systems, highlight failure patterns before they arise, and compare multiple designs for safety.

A consortium including Australian concentrated solar thermal power company Vast Solar has filed to patent a new tank design for thermal energy storage systems. The new design, it says, substantially mitigates the risk of tank failures which have been identified as one of the key shortcomings of the economical storage technology.

Australian hydrogen research and development company, Star Scientific, has announced its technology will be used to provide heat for industrial-scale sanitation in a pilot with Mars Food Australia.

Sydney-based solar pioneer 5B has today announced it will acquire IXL Solar’s Adelaide-based manufacturing business, with pv magazine Australia told the purchase will see 5B buy everything but the name, effective immediately.

Floating PV is a growing niche in the solar sector, but its offshore segment has proven more difficult to activate, largely because of the difficulty of open-water energy generation. Nevertheless, the potential of offshore floating PV is almost unlimited, and one Singaporean firm, G8 Subsea, is looking to leave the safety of harbours and reservoirs.

Developed by scientists in Turkey, a system prototype has operated at lower PV module temperatures and removed most of the dust accumulation. The researchers are now planning to improve the device by applying maximum power point tracking (MPPT) converter topologies.

With a new system for floating photovoltaic power plants, engineers from Germany want to make the application cheaper, higher-yielding, and safer. The result is somewhat reminiscent of a pufferfish, which also gave the system its name.

Batteries in South Australia have been paid to charge throughout September and October 2021 due to a record number of negative price intervals. Wholesale electricity prices were negative almost 40% of the time.