Technology and R&D

Renewable energy developer Vast Solar will progress plans to deliver Australia’s first commercial-scale concentrated solar power plant after securing financial backing from the federal government to build a 30 MW/288 MWh facility near Port Augusta in South Australia.

Enerpoly produces low-cost, low-maintenance zinc-ion battery storage systems for durations of two to 10 hours. The Swedish battery specialist now plans to develop prototypes of a residential plug-in storage system with rechargeable zinc batteries in Europe, under an EU-funded collaborative project with Austrian startup EET.

Ionblox says it will use $32 million of series B funding to support the buildout of a novel silicon anode electric vehicle battery.

The Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland has published the initial results of a survey on the durability and performance of residential PV inverters and power optimisers over a 15-year period. They found that more than 65% of the inverters did not present yield-relevant faults by their 15th year of operation.

Malaysian researchers have developed a system that can absorb heat from PV modules and transmit it to a nanofluid, in order to transform it into thermal energy and use it for different applications. The panels have an overall efficiency of 89%.

A research team at the Australian National University have claimed an efficiency of 30.3% for a tandem solar cell made by mechanically stacking a perovskite cell and a silicon cell. The achievement meets the first of three 2030 “stretch goals” set by the Australian government.

Scientists in Sweden have compared AC and DC topologies in PV-powered buildings using battery storage. They have found that DC distribution systems can achieve energy savings when they are combined with solar-plus-storage systems.

Chinese scientists have analysed reports of thermal issues with vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) and existing thermal management methods. They say the operating temperature should be maintained in the range of 10 C to 40 C to ensure VRFBs with high efficiency, weak side reactions, high electrolyte stability, and low crossover.

Enphase’s new bidirectional EV charger enables vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid applications, and can be integrated with its home energy systems.

Honda has revealed a new hydrogen strategy, while Air Liquide and TotalEnergies have announced a new hydrogen joint venture.