North America

Among the many similarities between California and Australia, both are impacted by bushfires and climate change, and both are home to larger cars and trucks than is the norm in developed countries. They are dissimilar, though, when it comes to electric vehicles and vehicle regulations. While California has been pursuing low-carbon and electric vehicles for decades, Australia has trailed most developed nations.

American investment behemoth BlackRock has agreed to acquire New Zealand rooftop solar PV and battery energy storage specialist SolarZero as part of its push into renewable energy in the Asia Pacific region.

Solar capacity in the United States is expected to grow from 129 GW today to 336 GW by 2027, according to the country’s Solar Energy Industries Association and research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the United States have made a breakthrough in high efficiency and stability for perovskite solar cells.

Solar-wind hybrid plants are rapidly becoming mainstream, and in booming markets like India and the US these hybrids are increasingly preferred to singular projects despite the higher installation cost. There is no shortage to the benefits of hybridisation, from a smoother power output profile to the cost saving of grid connection. But getting the balance right for new projects and retrofits remains a challenge. Blake Matich reports on this growing trend.

Australian battery manufacturer Redflow is determined to capitalise on what is describes as an emerging demand for non-lithium-based energy storage technology, announcing it has teamed with United States-based renewables developer Empower Energies to deploy solar and flow battery solutions in North America.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is exploring different paths to 100% emissions-free electricity in the United States.

Canadian battery developer Zinc8 Energy Solutions has announced plans to begin battery production in the United States, incentivised by manufacturing production credits in the US Inflation Reduction Act.

BMW Group said it is targeting the premium segment with its iX5 Hydrogen car, Topsoe revealed that it will invest US$267 million (AU$392m) to build the world’s largest SOEC electrolyzer plant in Denmark, and Bosch announced plans to invest US$200 million (AU$292m) in US fuel cell production.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has commissioned a first-of-its-kind pilot plant pumped heat energy storage demonstration facility with tech from US startup Malta. Its 10-150+ hour energy storage technology is said to be applicable in a range of grid-scale applications.