News

It has been said that it is no use crying over spilt milk, and similarly there is no use crying over emissions already spilt by the dairy industry, there is only to curb those emissions and Deakin University’s Hycel Technology Hub is looking to do that for the dairy industries in both Australia and Uruguay.

Scientists in China took a closer look at the role of defects in limiting the performance of perovskite solar cells, demonstrating a screening effect that could be tuned to make material defects “invisible” to charge carriers, greatly improving cell performance. Using this approach they demonstrate a 22% efficient inverted perovskite solar cell, and theorise several new pathways to even higher performance.

More than 100 Australian businesses, including some of the country’s largest, have banded together to put pressure on government to commit at least 1% of GDP to a green energy recovery in the May budget and to ensure a more equitable transition to renewables for marginalised Australians.

When Brett Redman, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Australia’s biggest energy generator and retailer, unexpectedly quit last month, the news promised intrigue. AGL, a giant in the Australian landscape, had recently announced it would split in two – a strange move which confused markets. Greenpeace today published an extensive report on the company, detailing how in the midst of global momentum away from fossil fuels in 2009, AGL actually divested from its renewable portfolio to turn toward coal, directed by Redman at the company helm.

Three commercial-scale hydrogen projects have been conditionally approved for $103.3 million in funding from the government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency, including Western Australian green ammonia project from Engie, as well two hydrogen + gas blend projects from ATCO and Australian Gas Networks respectively.

A clean energy investment firm based in Canada but already with a growing portfolio in Australia has set out an expansion plan in excess of $2 billion and 1.3 GW for the creation of a Renewable Energy Hub of South Australia, including at least three massive solar projects, two of which would supply South Australia’s green hydrogen ambitions.

Scientists investigating the aging mechanisms affecting today’s lithium-ion batteries observed that the loss of lithium over time is one of the main causes of performance loss. With this in mind, they developed and tested a “relithiation” process that promises to eliminate much of the cost and complexity from recycling battery components and materials.

First Solar and Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser AS have announced they will collaborate to develop power plant control and other supervisory systems as part of a broader plan to build integrated photovoltaic-hydrogen power plants.

In its first briefing following the publication of its Post 2025 Market Design Options Paper, the Energy Security Board’s Independent Chair, Dr Kerry Schott, spoke candidly about what will inevitably be a “messy” transition to renewables.

EnergyAustralia is set to build a 316 MW green hydrogen + gas peaking power plant in New South Wales by 2023, in time for the closure of Liddell coal-powered plant, which is one of the country’s biggest dispatchable electricity generators.