North America

Redflow has signed its biggest global battery deal yet after agreeing to supply Californian biowaste tech firm Anaergia with a 2 MWh energy storage system. Redflow is hoping the US$1.2 million agreement for 192 of its zinc-bromine flow batteries will serve as a foundation for US market expansion.

Scientists in China and the United States investigated the inner workings of aluminium-ion batteries. With new insights into mechanisms at work within the battery during cycling, the group was able to demonstrate a battery capable of ultrafast charging, with the highest capacity so far reported for an aluminium battery.

Australian company Redflow has made its single largest sale, supplying 192 zinc-bromine flow batteries to waste conversion specialists Anaergia for US$1.2 million.

EDF and Oceanus plan to build a pumped hydro storage station and a desalination system powered by wind and solar. The system will use saltwater to produce hydropower during periods of high demand, while producing affordable freshwater.

At present, China accounts for almost 75% of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and this share is set to increase through the short term with its build-out of new facilities. And although the US and Europe are enacting policies to encourage domestic battery production, there has been a distinct lack of support for investment in the supply and refining of the raw materials to achieve this. In China, the opposite holds true. 

Chip Breitenkamp, of Nanograf, discusses American battery manufacturing, how to ensure a resilient and equitable supply chain, and how to create jobs.

In an earnings call this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk boldly claimed that the company will soon be “the market leader in solar.”

Six new arrays with a combined capacity of 120 kW will be installed on the International Space Station starting from this year. The panels will be brought to the station with the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft during three resupply missions. The installation of each solar array will require two spacewalks.

One environmental group said the new president’s actions make “the United States once more part of the global climate solution—not the problem.”

An aggressive US climate policy rollout could provide a much needed dose of reality to the climate discourse in Canberra. It may also prompt Australia’s major parties to acknowledge the inevitability of a transition to a zero carbon economy.