Oceania

The largest Australian-owned gases company, Coregas, has received funding from the New South Wales Government to develop a hydrogen refuelling station at the Port Kembla site of BlueScope Steelworks. The station will work to support the introduction of zero emission hydrogen fleet vehicles in the region and greater New South Wales.

Australian supermarket giant Coles Group has fired the latest salvo in the supermarket wars, announcing on Friday it will commit to 100% renewable electricity by 2025.

Solar module developers have long recognised the detrimental effects heat has on cell performance but West Australian company Sunovate has pointed to solar PV-thermal (PVT) technology as an opportunity to value add by improving efficiency.

Digitalization is expected to play an increasingly important role in the renewable energy sector with a new international report highlighting it as critical for the continued expansion of wind and solar PV power generation.

Experts from the Australian National University have published a technical paper in which they argue a doubling of the rate of deployment of solar and wind would cut Australia’s carbon emissions 80% by 2040.

With ambitious plans to establish a 2 GW renewable energy portfolio in Australia, solar PV module supplier and project developer Risen Energy has signed a deal with Green Gold Energy (GGE) to jointly develop and construct a string of solar projects totalling 80 MW.

The Victorian Government’s push to impose a tax on electric vehicles (EV) is accelerating despite a Federal Government MP warning this week that the uptake of EVs in Australia is too slow, and the industry needs to be supported.

The search for power system security has sparked an Australian first with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) confirming South Australian energy authorities switched off 67 MW of rooftop and large-scale solar PV at the weekend when electricity demand plunged to a near-record low.

Earlier this month, London-based Eco Energy World announced a $500 million project to combine its ready to build 300 MW solar plant north of Gladstone, Queensland, with a 200 MW hydrogen plant and 100 MW of battery energy storage. pv magazine Australia sat down with EEW CEO Svante Kumlin to discuss the project, the green hydrogen future, and Australia’s future in it.

As the vision of Australia becoming a leading hydrogen exporter sharpens, questions about the best form in which to send our offering into the world arise. Just in the last fortnight, a West Australian company has came out with a strong case for a new, largely overlooked form: compressed hydrogen. The curve ball has piqued the interest of many. “I think they’re really doing some very exciting work,” Scott Hamilton from the Smart Energy Council told pv magazine Australia.