Europe

ASX-listed Vulcan Energy, a company working on a project in Germany that it says will deliver ‘zero carbon’ lithium by combining geothermal plants with lithium electrolysis, today announced its pilot produced high grade lithium hydroxide which ‘easily exceeds’ battery grade specification.

Spanish scientists have built a cooling system featuring heat exchangers on solar panels and U-shape heat exchangers installed in a borehole at a depth of 15 meters. The researchers claim that this reduces panel temperatures by up to 17%, while improving performance by about 11%.

According to VDMA, a German engineering association, there are now more orders coming in for German production equipment from Europe than from China. Nevertheless, shipments to Asia remain dominant.

Record energy prices, particularly in Europe, are driving demand for renewables and energy storage. That is changing the equation for utility solar and wind investment and shortening project payback times to under a year in some regions. Storage deployment, driven by recent policy developments around the world, is also expected to get a big boost through to 2030.

Russian researchers have transmuted poisonous Sosnowsky’s hogweed into high-grade anode material for sodium-ion batteries. The obtained material has a Coulombic efficiency of 87%, which is on par with the best reported results for hard carbons synthesised from other raw materials.

The Western Australia government is partnering with United Kingdom-based electrolyser manufacturer ITM Power and Germany’s Linde Engineering in a $450,000 (USD 278,106) study to develop a business case for the manufacturing of renewable hydrogen electrolysers within the state.

Australia-based energy investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has sold a 49% stake in a massive $1.9 million (USD 1.2 billion) solar PV and battery energy storage project being developed in the United States to a Dutch pension asset manager.

A study of the investment and innovation needed to achieve the European Green Deal’s aviation ambitions has highlighted the key role that synthetic fuel can play until hydrogen and electric flights become a reality.

Cemvita claims it can produce hydrogen at the “lowest possible cost,” Deutsche Bahn and Fortescue Future Industries have announced plans to jointly modify diesel engines for locomotives, and the Canadian province of Alberta has started promoting its hydrogen potential in Japan.

Developers recently commissioned two different wine-related agrivoltaic projects in Europe.