Oceania

EnergyAustralia’s growing appetite for grid-scale energy storage shows no signs of abating with the gen-tailer announcing it has received approval to construct a 350 MW four-hour battery in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley where its Yallourn coal mine and power station are set to close in 2028.

Western Australia-based AVESS is set to deploy demonstration batteries at a WA mine site in the second half of the year. The deployment is about proving the company’s technology, as it plans to move towards manufacturing the flow batteries in Australia from 2024.

Since opening in Sydney in 2022, renewable energy underwriter GCube Insurance has officially launched in Australia and is set to offer a broad range of new products to meet the needs of Australian developers and projects.

The Brookfield-led North American consortium courting Origin Energy has finally come back with a revised bid for the company, valued at roughly $18.2 billion (USD 12.5 billion). The offer is only fractionally lower than the initial bid, which came as a relief for the market, and has been endorsed by Origin’s board.

Grid operator Transgrid has partnered with German machine manufacturer Zeck for the use of its innovative steel separation technology. Zeck’s machine can process electricity transmission lines into a recycle-ready state onsite. Previously, Transgrid sent old transmission lines offshore for this process at a much higher cost to both the grid operator’s revenue and the environment.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has renewed calls for Australia to expedite generation, transmission and storage projects to ensure reliability of the country’s electricity supply. Interestingly, AEMO’s update notes South Australia, the state with the biggest share of variable renewable generation, faces the smallest reliability gap, meanwhile big batteries are successfully plugging short-term concerns.

Australian graphite miner turn integrated lithium battery company, Magnis Energy Technologies, has signed a significant offtake deal with electric vehicle giant Tesla. The agreement comes the same month the company quietly dropped its plan to build a 18 GWh lithium-ion battery factory in Townsville, northern Queensland.

Analysis from Sunwiz has revealed Australia’s breakdown of top rooftop solar and inverter manufacturers for 2022.

UNSW Sydney researchers have developed an algorithm to enhance images of PEM fuel cells, meanwhile South Korean researchers have revealed a scalable production method for platinum-based fuel cell catalysts. Germany has moved forward on its hydrogen strategy by signing agreements with Australia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

International oil giant Shell has provided New South Wales startup MGA Thermal with “gamechanger” funding to accelerate the completion of a commercial-scale pilot plant designed to demonstrate the role the company’s energy storage technology could play in the Australian energy market.