Australia

Australian iron ore and renewables giant Fortescue Energy has signed a joint venture with Moroccan phosphate mining company OCP Group to supply green hydrogen, ammonia, and fertilisers to Morocco, Europe and international markets.

Building a domestic solar panel manufacturing industry based on Australian innovation could generate up to 60,000 jobs and help cement the nation’s future as a renewable energy superpower but access to capital and focused policies are essential if manufacturers are to reach scale where they can be cost competitive internationally.

Construction has officially commenced at Spanish renewable energy developer Acciona Energia’s 380 MW Aldoga Solar Farm being developed near the industrial centre of Gladstone on the central Queensland coast.

Queensland government-owned network operator Powerlink has completed construction work on the transmission infrastructure that will pave the way for more than 2 GW of renewable energy assets in the state’s southeast to connect to the National Electricity Market.

Fortescue has awarded energy infrastructure provider GenusPlus Group two contracts worth a combined $50 million to deliver transmission infrastructure as the mining giant works to decarbonise its iron ore operations in Western Australia.

A Western Australian Aboriginal corporation’s plan to create one of the country’s largest renewable energy projects has reached a new milestone with the registration of the Indigenous Land Use Agreement for the planned 3 GW project by the National Native Title Tribunal.

Queensland aluminium materials manufacturer Alpha HPA says it is on the brink of transforming lithium-ion battery safety, declaring its high-purity aluminium nitrate is capable of providing a solution to lithium-ion battery fires.

Australia’s energy sector is undergoing a notable shift with new data from market analyst Sunwiz showing a record surge in utility-scale battery energy storage projects over 10 MWh in 2023 while residential and commercial installations also reached new highs.

The first in a series of gigawatt-class battery energy storage projects set to be rolled out across the National Electricity Market is on track to be fully operational by August 2025 after Australia’s market operator granted the technical green light for the Waratah Super Battery.

A team of scientists in Australia claim to have achieved the highest efficiency reported to date for a perovskite-CIGS tandem solar cell built on a flexible steel substrate. In the proposed cell configuration, steel can act as both a substrate and an electrode.