Australia

The Grattan Institute has recommended the sale of new petrol and diesel cars be phased out in Australia by 2035 in a bid to “supercharge the switch to electric vehicles” to help cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

Western Australia’s McGowan Government has joined fellow state and territory governments in joining the Smart Energy Council’s industry-led Zero Carbon Certification Scheme. As the region with the largest proposed green hydrogen projects in the world, this is a significant step toward ensuring a future in which green hydrogen is prioritised.

Brisbane-based battery casing company Vaulta has more to celebrate than just Brisbane’s winning 2032 Olympic and Paralympic bid. The company has won a Federal government Accelerating Commercialisation grant that will see its innovative design pushed ahead as the tide of electric vehicles rising globally.

Burning biomass – essentially, wood – is defined by the Australian government and the United Nations as a renewable energy source. As Australia’s hydrogen pipeline balloons, projects proposing to produce the ‘future fuel’ by burning waste wood have begun to appear. It’s a model that has immediate benefits, complicated drawbacks and significant carbon emissions along the way.

Australian renewable developer Maoneng has revealed details for its 240 MWp/480 MWh big battery proposed for Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula which has now opened for public exhibition.

More than half of regional Queenslanders believe clean energy industries will be major employers by 2030, according to a new survey, while just shy of half support transitioning to a renewables-dominated grid in the next 15 years or sooner. The survey focussed only on regional Queensland, excluding greater Brisbane area and Gold Coast, an area renowned for conservatism.

Australia’s first lithium-ion battery manufacturer, Energy Renaissance, has received a half million dollar grant to develop its pilot manufacturing facility in the state’s Hunter region.

The number of residential home batteries in Queensland has doubled while electricity bill cost concern has almost halved, found the “biggest survey of its kind” conducted in the state. The survey’s findings, which set to be released in full later this week, were summarised this morning by Queensland Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen, Mick de Brenni, at a virtual event.

Compressed air energy storage is not exactly a new technology, but recent months have seen this older storage technology with a new lease of life as intermittent renewable sources of energy come to the fore. Recent large-scale air storage plants have been announced in North America and the Middle East, and now some of that hot air has arrived on Australian shores.

Renewables contracting giant Sterling and Wilson Solar has declared the integration of large-scale batteries into solar PV farms in Australia will be not only crucial for effective management of the nation’s energy supply as the transition to renewables continues at pace but can improve returns on utility scale solar investments.