Oceania

The realisation of biodegradable batteries is a step closer thanks to research from South Australia’s Flinders University, which has developed a 2.8V organic polymer battery. While this battery was made from synthetic polymers, research lead Dr Zhongfan Jia told pv magazine Australia the team’s future iterations will source “materials directly from nature” saying this promises to reduce waste and reliance on mined materials and could have novel applications in fields like biotech.

Climatic trends, extreme conditions and sea level rise are already hitting many of Australia’s ecosystems, industries and cities hard. As climate change intensifies, we are now seeing cascading and compounding impacts and risks, including where extreme events coincide. These are placing even greater pressure on our ability to respond.

Underwriters Laboratories, a US non-profit standards development organisation, will carry out research into the operating and safety profile of Queensland company Redflow’s redox flow batteries under nominal and off-nominal conditions.

What can wave energy converters do that no other form of renewable energy can? Well, they can remove waves’ energy. For a country like Australia, where much of our population and wealth is concentrated on coastlines evermore frequently battered by extreme weather, this proposition is particularly attractive. Especially if the technology is able to offer both protection and green electricity without radically altering marine ecosystems and aesthetics. “No one has looked at what we’re looking at before: combining power generation with coastal protection and trying to control it,” Professor Richard Manasseh told pv magazine Australia.

ARENA will give $22.8 million in funding to Viva Energy to build a renewable hydrogen and EV charging service station opposite its petroleum refinery in Geelong, Victoria.

Australian maritime hydrogen company Poseidon Marine H2 says it expects to have a hydrogen-powered boat in Australian waters within the next 18 months after bringing on board the principal engineers from Dynamic Efficiency.

Construction is set to commence immediately on the first stage of a 1.2GW hybrid wind, solar and battery energy storage project in Central Queensland following Australian iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest’s announcement that he has invested $3 billion in the ‘shovel ready’ development.

The potential early retirement of Eraring has been the talk of the market the past week. Many of our customers have been asking what the impacts of the retirement might be on the acceleration or development of new renewable capacity in NSW and potential storage projects. In this Chart of the week, we look at the effect of the lost generation from Eraring and how that capacity might be filled.

Scientists in Australia have developed an optimisation framework for building-integrated photovoltaics that allows the selection of design variables according to user preferences. Their model considers PV-related features such as tilt angle, window-to-wall ratio (WWR), PV placement, and PV product type, as well as objective functions and constraints such as the net present value and the payback period.

Fortescue Future Industries’ plans to establish a 2GW renewable energy infrastructure-manufacturing facility and a separate 50,000 tonne green hydrogen production facility in Queensland have reached a major milestone with state-owned network operator Powerlink agreeing to connect the project sites to its transmission network.