Australia

Modular solar array manufacturer 5B will work with researchers from the University of Sydney to optimise the design of large-scale solar farms in a bid to minimise temperature-induced panel efficiency losses. The research project secured funding support in the latest round of the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Project Grants program.

Singapore-based vanadium redox flow battery maker VFlowTech has raised $14.4 million (USD 10 million) as part of a Series A funding round. It will use the capital to set up a 200 MWh vanadium flow battery factory for the production of its 250 kWh product.

The prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering has this year been awarded to the University of New South Wales’ Professor Martin Green, Dr Aihua Wang and Dr Jianhua Zhao, as well as the Australian National University’s Professor Andrew Blakers, for their research work and development of PERC solar technology.

Large-scale wind and solar farm investment commitments grew nearly 50% in 2022, according to new data published by the Clean Energy Regulator.

A research team at the Australian National University have claimed an efficiency of 30.3% for a tandem solar cell made by mechanically stacking a perovskite cell and a silicon cell. The achievement meets the first of three 2030 “stretch goals” set by the Australian government.

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, speaks to pv magazine as part of our Only5mins! series about the crisis threatening Adani Group with collapse, the “positive outlook” for Australian renewables, and the nation’s potential to become a clean energy superpower.

Solar and storage analyst Sunwiz is predicting an inversion of many of the trends that dominated the industry in 2022. While rooftop solar has bounced back after a disappointing year, Sunwiz founder Warwick Johnston tells pv magazine Australia, the utility segment’s position looks dire.

Malaysian oil giant Petronas is reportedly set to buy the Australian renewable assets of German developer Wirsol. With roughly 750 MW of solar and storage projects and nearly double that in development, the deal could be worth between $900 million (USD 625 million) to $1 billion, according to Reuters.

A distribution agreement between Europe-based Enermech and Wolftank Group will see mobile hydrogen refuelling stations installed at remote mine sites and industrial sectors across Australia and New Zealand.

Australian modular solar manufacturer 5B’s rapidly deployable Maverick technology is to be installed as part of a 95 MW hybrid power plant featuring solar, wind and battery energy storage. The plant will help power Liontown Resources’ Kathleen Valley Lithium Project being developed in the Goldfields region of Western Australia