Technology and R&D

The Australian Energy Market Operator is looking to fast-track the deployment of advanced inverter capabilities to support Australia’s “once-in-a-lifetime transition” to a power system featuring reduced synchronous generation, such as coal-fired generation.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales will look to improve the quality of advanced solar PV cells after the project secured a share of more than $1.5 million in the latest round of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage Project Grants.

Developed by a Vietnamese-Korean research group, the complex PV device was built with a bottom bifacial crystalline silicon perovskite-filtered heterojunction sub-cell that is able to absorb all solar spectra in the short-wavelength range.

Developed by Chinese researchers, the novel design methodology consists of utilising metal brackets as mounting structures, conventional solar panels, and a grooved glass plate placed between the solar panels. According to its creators, it ensures a farmer’s average income increases by 5.14 times, including the solar power generation business. A system built with this approach should cost around €715 (AU$1145) per kW installed.

Less than a week after fire broke out at the Victoria Big Battery in Geelong, Australian renewable energy developer Maoneng has given lithium iron phosphate batteries the tick of approval, declaring it will use the technology at its utility scale battery energy storage system planned for Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

German researchers developed a lattice arrangement of three different layers of ferroelectric crystals that created a powerful photovoltaic effect.

The Swiss group has acquired an integrated solar roof system solution from an unidentified German engineering service provider for this purpose. The aim is grow this sector from a niche market.

Researchers at The Australian National University working on the photovoltaic potential of ultra-thin 2D materials have made an interesting discovery, the ability of these diaphanous materials to generate solar energy can be controlled by a mere “twist”.

A British-Australian research team has assessed the potential of liquid air energy storage (LAES) for large scale application. The scientists estimate that these systems may currently be built at a cost between €300 and €600 (AU$480 to $960) per megawatt-hour and that a positive business case could be favoured by certain conditions, including a determined price structure in the energy market and the presence of a grid unable to support high levels of renewable energy penetration.

Solar PV is an important contributor to all energy scenarios presented in AEMO’s latest “Input, Assumptions and Scenarios Report,” but what’s the best possible outcome it can enable?