Australia

Professor Thomas Maschmeyer and his team of researchers at Sydney Uni spin-off Gelion Technologies have developed a scalable, inexpensive zinc-bromine battery, they say is safe for home storage, remotely serviceable for far-flung solar installations, and cool under pressure.

In a flurry of funding announcements, the Coalition government pledged to underpin two major pumped hydro projects, an interconnector and an energy efficiency program, and tried to move forward a hydrogen export roadmap and a national strategy for electric vehicles. However, if it truly wants to refashion itself on climate and energy policy and realize any of these massive new opportunities, the government will need to reshuffle the nation’s energy mix towards a greener future .

U.S.-based hedge fund Magnetar Capital, a 25% investor in a Lyon subsidiary, is seeking to wind up the group’s solar and storage unit, in a case before the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Lyon is looking for ways to buy out Magnetar’s share.

From 1 July this year, the single minimum price Victoria’s solar households will receive for the power they export to the grid will increase by two cents per kilowatt hour. However, under the time-varying tariff introduced last year, the peak rate tariff has been slashed by half.

As climate change and energy security penetrate NSW political parties as potent issues in the upcoming State election, NSW Labor has upped the ante in the policy contest by setting a renewable energy target that could see 50% of the state’s electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030.

The latest report from The Australia Institute corroborates solar’s pivotal role in shaving peak demand, particularly in the event of extreme conditions as seen in January. Renewables performed the best of all energy sources during the record-breaking summer of heatwaves, while coal clunkers were operating well below capacity, the findings confirm.

The establishment of Queensland’s state-owned renewable energy corporation CleanCo has reached another milestone with the legislation presented to the parliament.

Maoneng Australia, John Laing and Decmil have hosted a sod-turning ceremony on-site in Balranald, NSW. The developer has confirmed the solar farm will be co-located with a large-scale grid connected battery, and stated its plans for an additional 500 MW of solar and energy storage to be added in line with the proposed SA-NSW interconnector.

Construction on the 121 MW Yarranlea Solar Farm in Queensland is continuing, with tracker installation underway, setting the stage for module installation. The project, which is funded and managed by Risen in-house, is part of the company’s ambitious plan to develop 2 GW of large scale projects in the country.

BSR EPC has secured a contract from Australian renewables developer Epuron to deliver the Northern Territory’s largest solar project – the 33 MW Katherine Solar Farm co-located with a 6 MW battery storage system.