South Korea

A new report from Wood Mackenzie suggests costs of front-of-the-meter battery storage systems in the Asia Pacific region could decline by 30% by 2025. The declining costs are already having a palpable impact as 2021 has opened with a slew of large-scale battery project announcements.

Fortescue Metals Group Chairman Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest returned to Western Australia last week after a 4-month worldwide search for green energy projects and resources. One of the deals secured on the trip was a circular partnership with South Korean steelmaker Posco. The deal sees Fortescue supply Posco with iron ore, Posco use said ore to make steel, and Fortescue use said steel for renewable energy projects to make green hydrogen.

A new Wood Mackenzie report has forecasted a massive swing in the levelised cost of electricity across the Asia-Pacific over the course o the next decade. Before 2030, renewables will be cheaper than new coal and gas almost everywhere, and significantly cheaper in Australia.

South Korean manufacturer Clenergy has unveiled a new mounting solution for PV panels installed in balconies. The structure is adjustable to different types of commonly-sized balconies with metal railings.

It’s been a busy couple of months in global energy and climate policy. Australia’s largest trading partners – China, South Korea and Japan – have all announced they will reach net-zero emissions by about mid-century. In the United States, the incoming Biden administration has committed to decarbonising its electricity system by 2035.

The centralised nature of policymaking in Beijing would enable component standardisation to ease the transition from EV to stationary energy storage use, according to Greenpeace East Asia.

Re-elected South Korean president Moon Jae-in today declared he will follow-up on a campaign trail promise to eliminate carbon emissions by mid century. The announcement comes just two days after Japan’s new prime minister said he would accelerate his nation’s emissions target.

Global Energy Ventures announced to the ASX yesterday its design for the H2 Ship, a compressed hydrogen ship capable of transporting 2,000 tonnes of hydrogen from green hydrogen hubs in northern Australia to trading partners such as Singapore, Korea, China, and Japan.

The latest edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report indicates the stagnation of the sector continues. Just 2.4 GW of new nuclear generation capacity came online last year, compared to 98 GW of solar. The world’s operational nuclear power capacity had declined by 2.1%, to 362 GW, at the end of June.

Modelling from a new report backed by ARENA has found that on-site solar electrolysis is not only the most cost-effective way of reaching Australia’s ambitions of both a domestic and export hydrogen economy, but perhaps the only way.