Labor pledges $22m to establish Northern Australia’s first eco-industrial precinct
Federal Labor has promised to allocate $22 million to help establish the Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct being developed in northern Queensland if it wins the election in May.
Australian astronaut says time is right for space-based solar farms
Australia’s first astronaut believes advances in solar and space technologies and a growing capability to build and launch reliable satellites means it is now not only possible, but economically viable to build a solar PV farm based in Earth’s orbit.
World Solar Challenge back on track in Australian outback
A new generation of solar-powered cars is set to be tested in the harsh Australian outback next year after organisers of the World Solar Challenge confirmed the international car racing event will make its return in 2023.
Fully autonomous robot for solar O&M
OnSight Technology has developed a tele-operated vehicle to clean solar arrays. It is equipped with a radiometric thermal imaging camera and an optical zoom camera backed by artificial intelligence. It has a range of 12 hours and a speed of 1.6 km per hour.
Thermally integrated PV-electrolyser with 9.1% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency
A Swedish research group has developed a device combining CIGS thin-film solar modules and an alkaline electrolyser based on a trimetallic cathodic catalyst made of nickel, molybdenum, and vanadium (NiMoV) and an anode made of nickel oxide (NiO). The electrolyser achieved an average solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency of 8.5% for stable operations during 100 hours.
Weekend read: Sodium-ion batteries go mainstream
Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a viable alternative to lithium-ion technology. Industrial heavyweights CATL and Reliance Industries, following the acquisition of UK-based sodium-ion specialist Faradion, are bent on bringing the technology out of the lab and into mass production. Against a backdrop of soaring prices and predicted shortfalls of lithium-ion battery materials, sodium-ion chemistry has never been more tantalising.
Q Cells, German researchers claim 28.7% efficiency for 2T perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell
The Korean manufacturer and the German research centre were able to improve the performance of their jointly developed tandem solar cell by almost one percentage point.
‘Green aviation revolution’: Fortescue teams up with Airbus
Fortescue Future Industries and Airbus have formed a partnership, saying they will work together to realise a green hydrogen-based aircraft by 2035.
Hybridising PV, redox flow batteries and geothermal heat pumps
A Spanish consortium is equipping one of Madrid’s largest metro and bus stations with a hybrid system that combines PV, geothermal pumps, and vanadium redox flow batteries to provide cooling and heating.
$125 million fund for innovative Australian–German green hydrogen projects opens
A joint fund with roughly $125 million from both the Australian and German governments has opened today and is seeking applications from projects across the value chain of renewable green hydrogen.
