Research

Chinese solar cell and module maker Aiko Solar has partnered with the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics on a $6 million initiative aiming to achieve 30% efficiency with interdigitated back contact silicon solar cells.

With electric vehicle demand continuing to grow in Australia, Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota has revealed it will team with mining giant BHP to trial the “first ever” battery-powered HiLux dual-cab ute.

The results of this year’s Kiwa PVEL scorecard have shown that TOPCon technology is more vulnerable than PERC, and the failure rate at bill of materials has increased to 41%, the highest in history, according to the testing lab.

Although local defects in chloride-iodide-based perovskite are hard to avoid due to ion migration, a group of scientists from the University of New South Wales has found a way to passivate them. They used different combinations of 4-chlorobenzylammonium chloride and 4-chlorobenzylammonium bromide on top of the hole transport layer and reached up to 15% improvement in efficiency.

Australian battery tech company Li-S Energy has announced a major improvement in the performance of its lithium-sulphur battery technology with its latest iteration achieving an energy density close to 500 Wh per kilogram.

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.

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.

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.