Technology and R&D

A U.S. research team has sought to improve the way aluminium hydride is used for hydrogen storage. The material was nanoconfined in a framework that is claimed to be able to overcome the challenge represented by the thermodynamic limitation of hydrides in storing the clean fuel.

A team of engineers from Newcastle University have patented a thermal storage material capable of storing large amounts of renewable energy as heat over long periods. These thermal energy storage blocks are now being manufactured by MGA Thermal with ambitions to act as storage for large-scale solar systems and to repurpose coal-fired power stations.

An Indian research group has used three different chemicals instead of commonly used hydrofluoric acid to separate silicon from the cell. The technique is claimed to be able to deliver recycled silicon with a purity of up to 99.9984%.

Trackers, training and truly big-wattage panels are among the latest Trina Solar offerings. How are these various developments designed to meet the needs of the Australian utility-PV industry?

It may just be an MOU, and there are no timeframes attached, but the agreement between two major emitters to continue and prioritise their development of green-processes for producing steel from iron ore bodes well for Australian manufacturing strength and marketability.

The new product has a power conversion efficiency of up to 19.3% and a weight of 11.2 kg. The module is produced with glass fibre reinforced plastic, which the manufacturer says reduces light reflection and opens up new assembly options.

Israel-based Augwind has built its first 250 kW/1 MWh compressed air storage system for the collective community of Yahel, in the southern, desert part of the country. The commercial scale facility will be connected to a PV system and will be used for behind-the-meter services.

The ability of grid-scale batteries to provide fast frequency response and synthetic inertia services to the National Energy Market will be put to the test with infrastructure service provider Lumea confirming commissioning of the 50 MW/75 MWh Wallgrove Grid Battery in Western Sydney has commenced.

Some 90,000 individual solar panels will generate enough electricity to cover around 40% of the electricity used in two buildings for Google.

A number of Australian battery material recovery projects got off the ground this week, including the completion of Western Australian outfit Neometal’s battery recycling demonstration plant, a Queensland-Japanese joint venture studying the extraction of cobalt from copper tailings as well as the funding of Sydney-based startup Novalith.