Technology

Researchers from Monash and the University of Queensland have developed a nanofiltration technology to extract lithium from low-grade saltwater brines with high magnesium content. “Our technology achieves 90 percent lithium recovery, nearly double the performance of traditional methods, while dramatically reducing the time required for extraction from years to mere weeks,” researcher Dr Zhikao Li said.

While Australia continues to be a revelatory solar market internationally, it lost its place in the top 10 solar installers globally in 2023, the IEA PVPS team reports. According to Renate Egan, Executive Director for the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, it is the first time in 30 years Australia has dropped off that list. “What’s sad is that the rest of the world is now taking off and investing in solar and we’re falling behind,” she said at Melbourne’s All Energy on Thursday.

China’s Longi Green Energy has set a new world record for crystalline silicon solar module efficiency with its independently developed hybrid passivated back contact (HPBC) 2.0 module, achieving a conversion efficiency of 25.4%, according to a certification report from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).

A group of scientists conducted a literature review of almost a hundred fast maximum power point tracking algorithms. They extracted ten representative algorithms and showed which of them works best under different scenarios.

A Western Australian trio developing a novel ‘closed loop process’ for producing high purity alumina used in lithium-ion batteries has secured a $2.87 million grant from the Australian government.

Australian company Rux Energy is commercialising technology that uses highly porous nanomaterials to coat tanks for hydrogen storage, claiming significant improvements to the cost, safety and efficiency of what remains a major industry barrier. It has secured funding in the Australian government’s latest round of research grants, and recently opened an office in Essex off the back of industry trials now underway in the UK.

Singaporean authorities have granted conditional approval to SunCable’s flagship AustraliaAsia PowerLink, with SunCable’s interim CEO describing the win as a “vote of confidence in the commercial and technical viability of our project.”

The federal government has announced it will double the amount of storage projects being sought in the next found of tenders for its Capacity Investment Scheme, upping it from 2 GW / 8 GWh to 4 GW / 16 GWh. The solar and wind tenders have also been increased, moving from 4 GW to 6 GW.

Founder and former CEO of SwitchDin Dr Andrew Mears is launching his new venture, Tesseract ESS, at Melbourne’s All Energy today. The proposition expands on his previous technologies to deliver a ‘storage-as-a-service’ model focused on Australia’s C&I segment, providing battery and solar systems at $0 CAPEX to Australian farmers, manufacturers and other businesses. Pv magazine Australia spoke to Mears ahead of the launch.

Altech Batteries says it has boosted the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries by an average of 55% after combining graphite with alumina-coated silicon anodes.