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Australian startup H2X is banking on bringing automotive manufacturing back to Australia with hydrogen. After its Warrego ute was met with startling fanfare last week, pv magazine Australia caught up with the company’s corporate affairs specialist, Tony Blackie.

Europe plans to introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism in two years, requiring importers to pay a carbon price on steel, iron, aluminium, cement, electricity and fertiliser initially. Experts explain what the changes will mean for Australia’s export future, and just how little the legality debate matters.

As part of the Western Australian government’s 2021-22 Budget, Premier Mark McGowan announced a new $50 million fund to stimulate the growth of the state’s green hydrogen industry for domestic use and exports. The fund comes on top of several ongoing initiatives and includes funding for private industry feasibility studies, including one which will see bp repurpose its Kwinana Oil Refinery into a green fuels hub.

A group of biologists in the United States working with a bacteria discovered a mechanism that could be used to convert electricity into biofuels or other useful substances. With better understanding of the genetics, the group says the mechanism could rival hydrogen for the storage of renewable energy.

Developed by Australian scientists, the demonstrated system is claimed to achieve a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 20% at a levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of $4.10/kg. The direct solar hydrogen generation technology is powered by a tandem perovskite-silicon solar cell with an unprecedented high open-circuit voltage of 1.271 V, and a power conversion efficiency of 24.3%.

Electric vehicles could autonomously transport electrons between where they’re generated and where they’re needed based on algorithms and smart software, predicts JET Charge CEO Tim Washington. Such a future, he admits, is “pretty sci-fi” and still a while off.

Plans to create hydrogen by burning wood have swollen in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley, after sawmill offshoot, Sweetman Renewables, yesterday announced a $15 million deal with Singapore’s CAC-H₂ to construct the country’s largest wood-fed hydrogen production plant.

Scientists in the United States claim to have created a crossover-free, high-voltage, non-aqueous hybrid flow battery with a novel chemistry for the solid sodium anode. The device has shown a high working voltage of around 2.6 V and a coulombic efficiency of 95.0%.

Scientists in Switzerland found that perovskites can be used to detect thermal neutrons emitted by radioactive devices. Taking advantage of several properties that also make the materials attractive for solar cell applications, the group was able to fabricate a novel device that could have various practical applications, including in energy generation.

For a small infrastructure investment in rooftop solar systems, state governments can make a material difference to the lives of social housing tenants, and further their net-zero ambitions. Western Australia reports another win-win.