News

What can wave energy converters do that no other form of renewable energy can? Well, they can remove waves’ energy. For a country like Australia, where much of our population and wealth is concentrated on coastlines evermore frequently battered by extreme weather, this proposition is particularly attractive. Especially if the technology is able to offer both protection and green electricity without radically altering marine ecosystems and aesthetics. “No one has looked at what we’re looking at before: combining power generation with coastal protection and trying to control it,” Professor Richard Manasseh told pv magazine Australia.

ARENA will give $22.8 million in funding to Viva Energy to build a renewable hydrogen and EV charging service station opposite its petroleum refinery in Geelong, Victoria.

Australian maritime hydrogen company Poseidon Marine H2 says it expects to have a hydrogen-powered boat in Australian waters within the next 18 months after bringing on board the principal engineers from Dynamic Efficiency.

China’s largest state-owned grid operator and power utility plans to deploy the world’s biggest battery fleet and almost quadruple its pumped hydro storage by 2030, thus supporting the nation’s switch to renewable energy sources.

A new report by JMK Research and IEEFA says Indian solar manufacturers need to create a strong foundation for sustainable development overall by integrating raw materials and impetus to R&D in their plans, rather than focusing solely on output.

Construction is set to commence immediately on the first stage of a 1.2GW hybrid wind, solar and battery energy storage project in Central Queensland following Australian iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest’s announcement that he has invested $3 billion in the ‘shovel ready’ development.

The potential early retirement of Eraring has been the talk of the market the past week. Many of our customers have been asking what the impacts of the retirement might be on the acceleration or development of new renewable capacity in NSW and potential storage projects. In this Chart of the week, we look at the effect of the lost generation from Eraring and how that capacity might be filled.

Scientists in Australia have developed an optimisation framework for building-integrated photovoltaics that allows the selection of design variables according to user preferences. Their model considers PV-related features such as tilt angle, window-to-wall ratio (WWR), PV placement, and PV product type, as well as objective functions and constraints such as the net present value and the payback period.

Two industry experts have provided analyses of the current polysilicon price scenario in a chat with pv magazine and both agreed that polysilicon demand is still growing faster than supply. The price may decrease starting from the second quarter and reach more reasonable levels by the end of the year.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has promised inverter makers higher power density, higher efficiency, and a total bill of materials that comes in closer to its more established rival in silicon. Has SiC finally arrived? Tristan Rayner spoke to the people at the forefront of the wider-bandgap material to find out the back story and what’s next.