Technology

In less than a year from today, Australia will be producing its own renewable-energy-storing lithium-ion batteries in the Hunter Region. A new $28 million Energy Renaissance facility will embed itself in the learning, hard-working, adaptable culture around the port of Newcastle, manufacturing exports that are expected to contribute some $3 billion to Australia’s GDP and advance the country’s energy transition.

The Western Australian Government’s Energy Transformation Taskforce has revealed its first blueprint for the isolated state’s energy system transformation over the next two decades. The blueprint, which features four separate models, sees rooftop solar and accompanying battery storage excel in the coming years, although it suggests coal-fired power will still have a large presence.

One of the few benefits of COVID-19 is the ability to virtually attend conferences that may previously have been a plane ticket too far. Tomorrow’s South Australian Renewable Energy Conference is a window of opportunity …

Australia needs more transmission and network capacity to efficiently use its vast, distributed renewable-energy resources, and to enable transition to a low-cost, zero-carbon electricity supply. In the Australian Opposition’s Budget in Reply it aims to make Australia’s inherent wealth work better for the nation, and puts transmission infrastructure upgrade at the centre of the country’s recovery from Covid-19.

Singapore-based solar plus storage microgrid expert Canopy Power has helped the Batu Batu resort on Malaysia’s Tengah Island reduce its dependence on diesel fuel through the installation of an integrated system which will cover a quarter of its energy needs.

German developer Next2Sun has completed a 4.1 MW solar plant built with roughly 11,000 bifacial panels provided by Chinese manufacturer Jolywood.

Powerlink Queensland has launched its ‘system strength as a service’ model in Far North Queensland through a deal with renewable energy giant Neoen’s 157 MW Kaban Green Power Hub. Powerlink Queensland’s model is to install a large synchronous condenser and then on-sell its system strength capacity to multiple renewable energy projects, a way to increase renewable energy integration into congested parts of the grid.

Solar and energy storage play an essential role in Project Gilghi, an off-grid water security innovation that has the potential to help a great many Australians, particularly Indigenous Australians, and people around the world who are struggling with poor access to potable water and sanitation.

Nextracker’s NX Horizon has delivered some pretty impressive results in testing, results that caught that eye of Neoen and EPC contractor Sterling & Wilson to incorporate the bifacial tracking system into what is to be Australia’s largest solar power plant in Queensland’s Western Downs.

Despite weeks with a Morrison Government sponsored gas cloud overhead a silver lining has appeared in the form of SunDrive, an Australian startup which just received $3 million in ARENA funding to help scale its low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell and manufacturing process.