Technology and R&D

Scientists investigating the aging mechanisms affecting today’s lithium-ion batteries observed that the loss of lithium over time is one of the main causes of performance loss. With this in mind, they developed and tested a “relithiation” process that promises to eliminate much of the cost and complexity from recycling battery components and materials.

Silicon Valley-based start-up Gridtential has secured US$12 million (AU$15.5m) in funds to develop what it calls the world’s first factory-ready, single-block, 24V, deep-cycle lead battery. The product is claimed to be ideal for personal mobility vehicles and renewable energy storage in homes and offices.

The municipal government of Barcelona is supporting the development of a 50-square-meter pilot project to test the feasibility of PV-paving tech.

An Australian innovation, the unassuming-looking CQSola power controller has under-the-hood smarts that could significantly cut the cost of hydrogen produced using solar energy.

Scientists in the UK used the latest imaging techniques to visualize and understand the process of dendrite formation and electrolyte cracking in an all solid-state battery. With new insight into the mechanisms by which these cracks form and ultimately lead to battery failure, the results could help direct the focus of future research into solid-state battery technology.

Researchers in Germany claim to have overcome the primary hurdle in the development of large-area perovskite PV modules – scaling up from the cell to the module level. They achieved an efficiency of up to 16.6% on a module surface of ​​more than 50 centimetres squared, and 18% on a module with an area of 4 centimetres squared.

The eastern suburbs of Melbourne are now home to the most certifiably sustainable shopping centre in the world. But to think of it only in those terms hardly does the project justice – rather, Melbourne is now home to a building which defies the limits of its own concept, imploring people to reconsider the value metrics through which space, cities and perhaps even lifestyles are appraised.

The ‘Graphene Revolution’ is drawing near in energy storage, the sector where it is arguably needed most. Univeristy of Queensland scientists who devised aluminium-ion batteries with graphene electrodes have teamed up with Brisbane-based Graphene Manufacturing Group to push the technology into the commercial prototype phase, a potentially early marker for a technology that could transform energy storage.

Microgrids afford an opportunity to essentially become a power station operator. That opportunity, says Dr Adrian Panow, the Director of Deakin’s Energy Initiative, unearths a number of urgent questions ranging from the technical all the way to the ethical. They are questions cross-faculty researchers at Deakin University, now home to a sizeable microgrid, plan to interrogate.

In efforts to improve PV performance by helping modules keep their cool, the Martin Green team is going for 10 degrees lower operating temperatures. Cherry-picking the most practical approaches could deliver 50% extended project life.