News

Two French companies have collaborated on the development of the Osmo-Watt system, which is powered by solar panels. They claim that the technology can produce up to 100 cubic meters of drinking water per day.

In what is believed to be a Victorian first, CitiPower and Yarra Energy Foundation will parter to create a community battery network in the Melbourne CBD and inner-city suburbs.

In November last year, Cornwall Insight Australia estimated Australia had 7 GW of battery storage projects in the pipeline. Since then, massive amounts of storage capacity have been added.

Enel X, a subsidiary of Italian utility company Enel, has won the Mission Critical Tech Innovation Award at the global Datacenter Dynamic Awards 2020 for its virtual power plant (VPP) grid support program in Australia.

The Sumitomo Corporation has simultaneously signed a contract with an EPC for a solar-powered green hydrogen production plant in Gladstone, Queensland, while also commencing a feasibility study for a grey-green hybrid hydrogen project in Oman. Considering the relative similarities in distance between the two countries and export markets in East Asia, the Japanese conglomerate looks to be setting the stage for competition in the hydrogen economy.

Edge-of-grid communities are under increasing threat of debilitating power outages due to disasters driven by climate change. A new report quantifies the benefits of transitioning some 244 communities to microgrids or individual power systems.

The LAVO 40 kWh battery incorporates an electrolyser, groundbreaking UNSW materials science, and Australian fuel-cell technology, in a slick unit that will be market ready in June this year. Gowing Bros last week became an equity investor and LAVO’s first major customer.

Housing developers around Australia are catching on to the allure of incorporating solar in buildings from the get go. This weekend the Queensland Government announced plans for two new state-sponsored solar-powered residential developments to light the way for more private companies to install rooftop PV and batteries as a matter of course.

Nicola Murphy, SA Water’s Senior Manager, Zero Cost Energy Futures has the sunniest disposition as she works steadily to ensure the substantial energy needs of the state’s vital water utility are solar powered from source to faucet.

There’s more to read in the solar world than pv magazine alone, as much as we may hate to admit it. Looking back across some of the industry’s seminal works, leading analyst Jenny Chase’s 2019 book is too valuable, and entertaining, to be ignored.