New South Wales

Australia’s first lithium-ion battery giga-factory is expected to begin operations soon with battery manufacturer Energy Renaissance announcing the successful completion of a $1.47 million pilot program designed to develop and test its manufacturing processes, systems and plant design.

The University of Wollongong professor behind the capillary-fed electrolyser breakthrough now being commercialised by Hysata has received grant funding to develop a cell for extracting pure hydrogen from methane mixtures.

The 225 MW Oxley Solar Farm, proposed in northern NSW, has agreed to pay $5.9 million as a “community benefit contribution.” The payment links to a recent list of demands from councils within the New England Renewable Energy Zone fed up large-scale projects deliver “significant financial and social costs with little tangible benefit to our regions.”

Renewable energy investors have proposed more than 40 new clean energy projects totalling more than 17 GW of generation and storage capacity for a coordinated renewable energy zone to be established in the Illawarra region on the New South Wales south coast.

The University of Technology Sydney has outlined details of a solar PV project it says demonstrates the potential of commercial and industrial rooftop space for use as solar farms with benefits beyond satisfying the host building’s energy needs.

The New South Wales government has moved to smooth the way for the development of large-scale solar farms in the state as the energy sector continues to transition from fossil-fuel generation towards renewables-based electricity.

Regional New South Wales will soon be home to a new solar PV and battery energy storage project with construction beginning on the community-owned Latitude Solar Farm being developed at Boggabilla in the state’s far north.

The Australian Energy Regulator has approved more than $300 million of funding to support early works on the HumeLink project which is expected to boost overall transmission capacity in New South Wales, paving the way for gigawatts of new wind, solar PV and storage projects.

Less than a year after agreeing to work with Australian steel company BlueScope, Shell is now stepping back from the plan develop a pilot-scale 10 MW green hydrogen electrolyser at the Port Kembla Steelworks and further the vision for a hydrogen hub in the Illawarra.

Lightsource bp will reach financial close on its 400 MW (DC) Wellington North solar farm in New South Wales and its 90 MW Wunghnu Solar Farm in Victoria by the end of 2022, making it one of Australia’s largest solar developers.