Oceania

Technology that promises to transform waste carbon into battery-grade graphite in less than 10 seconds is among the initiatives being backed by a multi-million-dollar venture fund established by Western Australia’s Curtin University.

Commercial solar outfit CleanPeak Energy has officially commenced building its first utility-scale PV development with construction work beginning on the 26 MW Wangaratta Solar Farm being built in northeast Victoria.

Victorian government-owned water authority GWMWater is branching into large-scale renewable energy generation with construction set to begin on a 6.5 MW solar array and battery energy storage system near the town of Nhill in the state’s west.

Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has been named chair of a multi-billion renewable energy fund that is aiming to build a 15 GW portfolio of assets including wind, solar, and battery storage over the medium term.

Australia is in critical need of robust planning of distributed battery energy storage systems to increase network flexibility alongside the development of new generation resources and transmission infrastructure.

Western Australian battery recycling startup Renewable Metals has inked a “multi-million-dollar” deal with British recycling giant European Metal Recycling which plans to build a pilot plant in the United Kingdom featuring the Aussie company’s lithium-ion battery recycling technology.

More than 6,000 homes and businesses in Western Australia’s Kimberley now have the option to install rooftop PV with regional energy provider Horizon Power confirming that its Smart Connect Solar technology that removes network hosting capacity constraints is now available in the town of Broome.

Chinese solar and storage technology manufacturer Sungrow has announced the launch in Australia of a new hybrid three-phase inverter and battery energy storage solution for use in residential and small-scale commercial and industrial applications.

The federal and state governments are stepping up their investments as they seek to deliver the army of skilled workers required to build the solar and wind farms, rooftop solar, battery storage and transmission infrastructure needed to achieve Australia’s renewable energy and emissions targets.

An ‘Australian first’ demonstration of aggregated flexible demand in residential settings will be rolled out in South Australia with the state’s principle electricity distributor to deliver smart energy upgrades for 500 households as part of a pilot program that aims to coordinate power usage to better support the grid.