Technology

Victorian electricity distributors Powercor and Citipower are setting out to alleviate grid congestion in area of high solar penetration, particularly in Western Victoria. The works are designed to increase the ability of rooftop solar owners to export solar to the grid amid the continuing uptake of residential solar.

With reins tightly held by China, a handful of players are trying to prise the production of a core ingredient of lithium-ion batteries out of Goliath’s hand before the battery boom begins in earnest with the electrification of the transport sector. The head of one of those companies, WA start-up International Graphite, spoke to pv magazine Australia about the hunger of both investors and customers, and the surprisingly collaborative race to feed global demand.

As present affairs of state attest, sweeping things under the rug is the preferred strategy of the Morrison Government, and hence its $50 million investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS). According to a recently published report from IDTechEx, CCS faces a difficult few years and a long way to go. Unfortunately, even if he does reach its forecasted scale by 2040, its capacity to remove emissions from the atmosphere in any hurry is negligible.

EDF and Oceanus plan to build a pumped hydro storage station and a desalination system powered by wind and solar. The system will use saltwater to produce hydropower during periods of high demand, while producing affordable freshwater.

Porous nanostructured microspheres made of copper, iron, and iron oxide were used by an international research team as negative anode material in lithium-ion batteries. The new technique is claimed to provide three times more capacity than batteries based on graphite anodes.

Battery technology company Relectrify has turned its focus to the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector with the launch of a 36 kW / 120 kWh commercial-scale modular battery energy storage system (BESS) which utilises second-life electric vehicle (EV) battery packs.

Smart metering services provider Intellihub cracked the million meter mark this week as the smart meter market in Australia and New Zealand surges off the back of continuing solar uptake.

A “tidal wave” of new solar and wind energy in Australia is poised to wipe out several coal-fired power stations in the National Electricity Market (NEM) with a new report suggesting the financial viability of the fossil-fuel generators will be so severely compromised within five years closure will become an attractive or even unavoidable choice.

Dutch scientist Bonna Newmann spoke with pv magazine about the present and future of vehicle-integrated PV from a technological and economic perspective. Solar panels installed on cars could have a payback time of only three or four years and ensure 10,000 km of pure PV-generated road travel per year, she said. Furthermore, if you live in a sunny place, you can drive an electric car with solar panels for weeks during summertime, without the need for recharging, she pointed out.