Technology and R&D

The first of three large-scale green hydrogen plants in the pipeline of the Green Hydrogen Australia Group has been given the green light. The Bundaberg Hydrogen Hub, featuring an 80 MW hydrogen electrolyser, will produce clean hydrogen for Australian hydrogen vehicle developer H2X.

Around 4.2 MWh of energy storage capacity will be connected to a solar and diesel micro-grid on Rarotonga, the largest of the islands in the South Pacific nation. Three 40-foot containers with a total power output of 4.8 MVA will be used as a power reserve and for grid support by utility Te Aponga Uira.

Almost a third of Australians are locked behind the solar barrier, they’re renters, tenants, urban apartment-dwellers who don’t have the luxury of installing their own solar PV. However, now city-dwellers can participate in the solar transition too, by becoming members of the Haystacks Solar Garden which operates in much the same way as community garden.

South Australia’s first ten-star home was completed last month, a home that consumes twenty times less energy than the average Australian household, in part thanks to its Fimer React 2 solar hybrid system.

Endesa, the Spanish unit of Italian power group Enel, is using a new technology in the construction of three solar parks in southern Spain.

A University of South Australia study has demonstrated that while solar panels in Australia are typically installed facing north to catch most of the sun’s arc, if you’re looking to export your solar into the grid you should really be orientating your panels to minimise the discrepancy between the times of peak use and peak production.

Western Australian tech startup Power Ledger and Thai renewable energy company BCPG are expanding their partnership with the creation of a Renewable Energy Certificate marketplace for SE Asia on Power Ledger’s peer-to-peer blockchain platform.

Such is the Global Village effect that the more globalised we are the more localised we become. The impacts of a global pandemic have choked industries and driven us into self-isolation, but at the same time, we are seeing an acceleration in the ingenuity of sales efficiency in the solar industry and a realisation of the necessity of self-generation. Tie this up with a shift to local government action on renewables and sustainability and the global recovery from Covid-19 is very much a local affair.

Is airlifting solar modules the future of commercial and industrial rooftop installation? Epho Commercial Solar recently employed the use of a helicopter to airlift pallets of modules atop 12 separate rooftops at Woolworths’ massive Norwest Support Office in Bella Vista. Epho Managing Director, Oliver Hartley, sat down with pv magazine Australia to tell us why.

Without droning on too much, the uses of drones in the solar industry are many, and this is why DroneDeploy has had such success in U.S. Now the company has opened a Sydney office and is planning rapid expansion with a focus on taking advantage of Australia’s widespread solar uptake. DroneDeploy’s Adam Savage sat down with pv magazine Australia to discuss.