Technology and R&D

Construction activities at renewables developer Neoen’s 200 MW/400 MWh Blyth Battery project site in South Australia’s mid-north will be powered by solar with off-grid power solutions specialist Commodore Australia deploying a hybrid PV and storage system at the remote location.

Resources giant Rio Tinto will team with Japanese industrial heavyweight Sumitomo Corporation to build a green hydrogen production plant on Queensland’s central coast as part of a $111 million (USD 74.64 million) ‘world first’ project which aims to lower carbon emissions from the alumina refining process.

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in America have demonstrated the use of sugar water to improve the performance of flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage.

Victorian network operator AusNet Services’ independent subsidiary Mondo Power has completed the installation and commissioning of 17 stand-alone power systems featuring PV and battery energy storage as part of its inaugural trial of the off-grid technology.

Australian startup Allume Energy’s SolShare platform, that allows multiple energy consumers to share the benefits of a single rooftop solar array, has been deployed in New Zealand for the first time with the technology installed at a three-storey public housing complex in Christchurch.

The Amortisator app, initially developed for the German market, is now available on the Apple and Google Play stores. Primarily targeting customer advisors, the app can be accessed for a monthly fee of €9.99 ($10.93).

New South Wales network operator Ausgrid has installed its first pole-mounted battery energy storage system as part of a trial which will examine the viability of the technology to better manage the increasing penetration of rooftop solar and periods of peak demand on the network.

German renewables developer Solar Kapital has deployed membranes at three of its utility scale PV plants in Greece and claims the technology has delivered an up to 6.4% increase in yield and the payback time of the new solution is relatively short.

China’s Sinopec has switched on the world’s largest solar-to-hydrogen project in Xinjiang, while India has unveiled a new plan to incentivize green hydrogen and electrolyzer production.

Australian renewable energy startup Green Gravity has teamed with underground mining contractor RUC to accelerate the commercialisation of its gravitational energy storage technology which rests on moving weighted objects through disused mine shafts.