Research

A new report by Climate Energy Finance has revealed Australia’s diesel Fuel Tax Credit Scheme disincentivises growth in future industries and will cost taxpayers $37 billion (USD 23.8b) in lost tax revenue by 2030. The report also illustrates how capping these rebates represents a multifaceted advantage for Australian manufacturing of low and zero-emission mining vehicles.

The figures for large-scale certificates registrations across most of Australia this year are dismal, despite the nation adopting a far brighter policy landscape. “There’s a very large discrepancy between rhetoric and what’s actually occurring,” Sunwiz managing director Warwick Johnston tells pv magazine.

Researchers in Australia have provided a series of recommendations to set up regulatory frameworks for PV module recycling and reuse. They said that, as a rule of thumb, landfill bans, tracking of the panels’ serial numbers, and a clear definition of ownership should always be included in the legislation for end-of-life solar products.

NASA has released an image of “fairy circle” clusters in the North Perth Basin of Western Australia, noting the formations have been discovered to naturally seep hydrogen gas from their perimeters.

A short report explaining upcoming challenges and solutions to electricity security has been published by the Australian Academy of Technology Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). The report calls for more investment to meet government targets and to keep consumer prices down.

University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers have looked at energy losses in South Australia and have identified average curtailment of 1.5% for distributed PV sites and 0.2% for distributed PV coupled with batteries, but some locations experience generation losses of up to 25%.

Researchers in the US have demonstrated that replacing the planar lithium anode in a redox mediated lithium-sulfur redox flow battery with a high surface area scaffold enables 10 times faster cycling, up to 10 mA cm−2, without short circuit or voltage instability.

A group of researchers from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory assessed the potential for floating PV (FPV) plants at reservoirs and natural waterbodies in 10 Southeast Asian countries. It found that the overall FPV technical potential for the region ranges from 477 GW to 1,046 GW.

Researchers in China have summarised the technical issues hindering the development of hard carbon, which is regarded as the most promising anode for high-performance, commercial sodium-ion batteries.

The global flow battery market will expand from USD 289 million in 2023 to USD 805 million by 2028, driven by increasing investments in renewable energy and flow batteries’ advantages over conventional products. The newly released report also highlighted Australia, noting the nation has numerous flow battery projects for various applications.