News

Singapore’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund GIC has made a “strategic” investment in renewables developer InterContinental Energy, one of the major players behind mega solar and wind-powered green hydrogen projects planned for Western Australia’s Pilbara and southeast regions.

Hydrogen vehicle and fuel cell startup H2X has partnered with Indian automotive parts manufacturer and developer Advik Hi-Tech in a deal which will see the Australian company’s products delivered into India and the wider international market.

An international research team has investigated how solar could be combined with thermoelectric coolers (TECs), which are small solid-state heat pumps used either for heating or for cooling. A system was built with six solar panels, an air duct system, four batteries, a charge controller, TECs, an inverter, heat sinks, a test chamber, and condenser fans.

A proposed 900-kilometre electricity interconnector that will link power grids across three Australian states, unlocking gigawatts of new wind, solar PV and storage projects has progressed further with New South Wales network operator TransGrid confirming the Environmental Impact Statement for the project’s eastern section has been submitted.

Australian engineering firm UGL has secured the design and works contract for an 88 MW solar farm in outback Queensland and the engineering, procurement and construction contract for an 87 MW solar farm in South Australia as part of a works package expected to deliver a combined revenue of more than $296 million.

Transport accounts for nearly 20% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and Schneider Electric’s Sam Yfantis believes decarbonising the nation’s public transport must be prioritised to help meet sustainability targets and move Australia away from its dependency on fossil fuels.

Western Australia-based Altech Chemicals’ plan to develop a high-grade alumina coating plant for lithium-ion batteries in Germany has taken a crucial step forward with the acquisition of an industrial site that could potentially house the facility.

Scientists in Australia have analysed the state-of-the-art of all gettering technologies used in the solar industry. This technique, which is aimed at reducing defects in wafer manufacturing, may become more important in the future, as cell efficiencies increase and become increasingly sensitive to traces of metallic impurities.

Researchers in Switzerland have replaced the electron transport layers in perovskite solar cells with a thin layer of quantum dots. On an area of 0.08cm2, they achieved a record efficiency of 25.7% and high operational stability.

A 100kW/1.5MWh zinc-air battery will be installed in Queens, New York, in combination with a combined heat and power system and a PV array. The pilot project is intended to demonstrate the long-duration energy storage capability of the zinc-air battery.