Asia

Australian company Rux Energy is commercialising technology that uses highly porous nanomaterials to coat tanks for hydrogen storage, claiming significant improvements to the cost, safety and efficiency of what remains a major industry barrier. It has secured funding in the Australian government’s latest round of research grants, and recently opened an office in Essex off the back of industry trials now underway in the UK.

Singaporean authorities have granted conditional approval to SunCable’s flagship AustraliaAsia PowerLink, with SunCable’s interim CEO describing the win as a “vote of confidence in the commercial and technical viability of our project.”

Founder and former CEO of SwitchDin Dr Andrew Mears is launching his new venture, Tesseract ESS, at Melbourne’s All Energy today. The proposition expands on his previous technologies to deliver a ‘storage-as-a-service’ model focused on Australia’s C&I segment, providing battery and solar systems at $0 CAPEX to Australian farmers, manufacturers and other businesses. Pv magazine Australia spoke to Mears ahead of the launch.

Indonesia has struck a deal with Chinese battery industry heavyweight CATL to build a giga-scale battery cell manufacturing plant in the southeast Asian nation as it works to establish a battery and electric vehicle ecosystem.

The Chinese manufacturer said that its new series includes inverters with up to 15 kW of AC output. It supports a maximum input current of 20A.

The Philippines’ Department of Energy says that at least 105 renewable energy projects, including 53 solar projects, face termination for failing to comply with timelines.

The Institute for Essential Services Reform says Indonesia’s solar industry has faced a downturn over the past two years, but policy reforms should accelerate solar deployment in the coming years. The think tank’s latest report states that 16.92 GW of projects are currently in the pipeline across the country.

JinkoSolar and Trina Solar have separately reported that on-field testing shows tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar modules outperform p-type back-contact PV modules in monthly power generation.

South Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has developed technology for the precise diagnosis of electric vehicle batteries using small currents that can improve the stability and performance of high-capacity batteries.

A University of New South Wales, Sydney study, in collaboration with the University of Calcutta, India, has found urban rooftop solar installations can raise daytime temperatures in a given area by up to 1.9 degrees, and lower them at night by up to 0.8 degrees.