Oceania

Australian energy storage systems provider Evo Power has teamed with battery optimisation technology provider Evergen in a move which aims to make it easier for commercial and industrial-scale battery customers to optimise and monetise their assets.

Allegro Energy, an Australian startup seeking to commercialise research into microemulsions to make non-toxic electrolytes that are cheaper “by factor of 100,” has commissioned a pilot-scale manufacturing line for supercapacitors in Newcastle, NSW.

A report from consultancy Climate Energy Finance finds that Australia and New Zealand have a more than $10 billion (USD 6.7 billion) pipeline of investment proposals in resource value-adding critical minerals, including in lithium, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, rare earths, hydrogen electrolysers, green ammonia, and value-added downstream battery developments.

Australia’s rooftop solar capacity has passed the 20 GW threshold, according to analysis from solar consultancy SunWiz. Solar will subsequently overtake coal-fired capacity in April, when a New South Wales coal power station closes – making PV the country’s largest power generator.

After consistently raising the price of its Powerwall home battery system since 2018, Tesla has finally dropped its recommended retail price to $14,599 (USD 9,818), a substantial $1,631 reduction.

Only weeks after announcing its plan to build a lithium-ion battery gigafactory in Geelong, Australia-based startup Recharge Industries has bought collapsed battery maker Britishvolt – doubling its manufacturing ambitions. The takeover resuscitates Britishvolt’s gigafactory play in northern England, and means the little known startup now holds two significant battery making projects.

Global solar developer Lightsource bp is reportedly testing buyer interest in five Australian projects, hiring Macquarie Capital to run early-stage market soundings on the deal which could potentially be worth around $1 billion (USD 670 million).

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes’ family fund Grok Ventures is among the initial investors in Canberra-based Infradebt’s Energy Transition Fund. The fund will finance six to eight grid-scale battery projects with a total capacity of up to 2 GW.

The solar ambitions of residents in the western Melbourne suburb of Tarneit are now underpinned by a neighbourhood battery. Victorian network service provider Powercor connected the 120 kW/360 kWh energy storage system to its network to make the most of the strong rooftop PV penetration in the area.

A huge renewable energy zone to be established on the New South Wales south coast has been formally declared, potentially unlocking more than 17 GW of solar, wind, battery storage, pumped hydro, hydrogen and new load projects, including green steel manufacturing.