News

Renewable energy developer MPower is progressing plans to establish a portfolio of up to 20 small-scale solar PV farms in Australia, confirming binding purchase agreements have been signed for two 5 MW project sites.

A market reform more than four years in the making is set to be introduced in less than 30 days with the Australian Energy Market Operator this week confirming the five-minute settlement period will come into effect on October 1, 2021.

NREL researchers developed a system that uses heated silica particles for thermal energy storage. The baseline technology is designed for a storage capacity of up to 26,000 MWh and is claimed to have a cost of of between $2 and $4 per kWh.

Scientists have demonstrated a zinc-ion battery that overcomes many of the challenges for this technology. By working with a highly-concentrated salt solution as the electrolyte, the group was able to achieve stability over more than 2,000 cycles combined with a strong electric performance. The group says that its work opens up “a viable route to developing aqueous batteries for emerging electrochemical energy storage applications.”

Hydrogen vehicle maker H2X is set to unveil its Australian-developed fuel cell electric hybrid Warrego Ute in November.

Wollongong council’s administration building is now being powered, at least partially, through a 200 kWp+ solar carpark.

With 370 of its most beloved athletes lambasting the country’s climate inaction on the same day its coal-loving base was revealed to be little more than a mirage, the Morrison government must front up to both its own people and global peers as elections and summits loom.

A number of Fraunhofer institutes in Germany want to make green hydrogen more cost-competitive and are working to identify the best and most economical processes for the production of electrolysers. They intend to build a digital library of future-proof electrolyser manufacturing processes with which the investment costs and even the return on investment can be determined in advance depending on the planned production volume.

Scientists in the U.S. discovered a promising new battery chemistry based on chlorine and table salt. Batteries based on this chemistry can achieve at least six times the energy density of today’s lithium-ion batteries, according to the group that created it. The prototype battery could already be suitable for small devices such as hearing aids, and with further work could be scaled up to larger applications.

The Victorian government has launched its second Victorian Renewable Energy Target auction, aiming to attract “at least” 600 MW of new renewable energy capacity to the state.