Technology

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will underpin two innovative distributed energy projects – a trial to integrate a virtual power plant into the National Energy Market and a digital marketplace for grid services provided by rooftop solar arrays, batteries and EVs owned by Australian homes and businesses.

Following the decision to require retailers taking part in the Solar Homes program to be signatories to the Clean Energy Council’s Solar Retailer Code of Conduct, the Victorian government has set specific requirements for inverters that will be installed under the program.

The solar households which choose to participate in the trial will receive direct cash payments of up to $135 per year, depending on the size of their battery system.

A recent Australian National University study shows that newly developed geographic information system algorithms can identify prospective sites for off-river pumped hydro projects throughout the world. The researchers, who identified around 530,000 potential sites, said pumped-hydro installations could enable large-scale energy time-shifting, as well as a range of ancillary services such as frequency regulation, which could help to integrate high levels of PV and wind into electricity systems.

The Coalition government has announced funding to support up to 50 off-grid and fringe-of-grid feasibility studies investigating whether building a microgrid can be a cost-effective solution. The studies will also look at whether existing off-grid capabilities can be upgraded with more up-to-date technology.

Scientists at MIT have developed a new type of “hybrid” cathode for lithium batteries, which they say could increase their energy density beyond that of current commercial lithium-ion battery designs.

Proposed marginal loss factors (MLFs) will result in six utility scale solar projects receiving a 10% or more reduction in revenues, at current prices and if imposed as proposed by AEMO. Worsening MLFs add to mounting pressures for large scale PV project developers in 2019.

A new study from the Australian National University shows that a series of pumped storage projects currently in the pipeline across five states could triple Australia’s electricity storage capacity, and pave the way for more solar and wind.

In research breakthroughs announced over the past few days, an ultrathin graphene film soaks up the sun, a renewable thermal solution provides a novel source of industrial heating (think hot rocks!) and the Future Grid Homes project reveals Airbnb as a potential model for excess-energy sharing between consumers.

Santos’s Cooper Basin oil production is set to be transformed by a trial using solar PV and a CSIRO-developed hybrid battery to replace diesel generators powering the pumps that deliver oil from underground 24/7. Early success suggests the trial will serve as a proof point for the reliability of renewables in many more off-grid applications.