Technology

A British-Australian research team has assessed the potential of liquid air energy storage (LAES) for large scale application. The scientists estimate that these systems may currently be built at a cost between €300 and €600 (AU$480 to $960) per megawatt-hour and that a positive business case could be favoured by certain conditions, including a determined price structure in the energy market and the presence of a grid unable to support high levels of renewable energy penetration.

Solar PV is an important contributor to all energy scenarios presented in AEMO’s latest “Input, Assumptions and Scenarios Report,” but what’s the best possible outcome it can enable?

The manufacturer has launched sodium-ion products online. Production has begun and will be easily scalable, according to the CATL chairman. Researchers have been keen to make the technology work as it offers a cheaper, more environmentally friendly alternative to lithium-ion products.

Speculation will be rife as to the cause of the fire which destroyed one Tesla Megapack and damaged another in Moorabool on Friday. Investigators are waiting until the site is deemed safe to begin their forensic examination.

The time is now for the energy consumer, says Anna Bruce, as energy “prosumers” produce, consume, and provide electricity and grid services in previously unimagined ways. Bruce, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales’ School of Solar Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE), leads work on the role of distributed energy resources in the energy transition, analysing firsthand the dizzying level of complexity it brings.

It’s a breakthrough so staggeringly simple the patent office needed convincing it counted as an invention. In what Professor Thomas Nann jokingly told pv magazine Australia basically equates to adding dishwashing liquid and oil to water, he and two of his former PhD students have unlocked the potential of water-based electrolytes for batteries, promising a solution that is cheaper, easier to manufacture and non-toxic. The startup plans to initially use the formula in supercapacitors before exploring it in conjunction with redox flow batteries.


Solar panels the size of five cent pieces will be used to locate koalas and protect them from incoming bushfires as well as to care for the threatened species as their habitat regenerates.

The federal government has allocated $25.6 million to support 20 microgrid feasibility studies, including in communities affected by the Black Summer bushfires, which left regions without power for weeks.

The PV mounting system was developed by Germany-based Goldbeck and will initially be available in the Netherlands from 2022. The company will test the new technology in a 45 MW PV project.

Transmission network operator TransGrid has confirmed works on two high priority electricity infrastructure projects which will allow for more renewable energy to be connected to the National Electricity Market have reached major milestones.