South Korea

An international consortium planning to build a 50 GW solar-and-wind energy hub in Australia’s southwest has announced it will partner with Korea’s largest electricity utility to advance the development of what would be one of the largest green hydrogen production facilities in the world.

Western Australian vanadium flow battery company Avess Energy has inked a deal to build a 500-tonne electrolyte manufacturing plant in South Korea as part of plans to strengthen its position in the global energy storage market.

Two Korean research institutes are designing a space solar power satellite project with the aim of providing approximately 1 TWh of electricity to the Earth per year. The proposed system would use 4,000 sub-solar arrays measuring 10 metres × 270 metres and comprising thin film roll-out, with a system power efficiency of 13.5%.

Oil and gas giant Woodside Energy has signed a deal with South Korean utilities major SK E&S to explore the potential development of a “lower-carbon” hydrogen value chain between Australia and South Korea.

Hanwha Qcells has closed its 3.5 GW solar factory in South Korea as part of plans to optimise its PV module production capabilities amid a stagnant domestic solar market.

Scientists from South Korea have designed new photovoltaic modules with both rectangular and triangular shapes and solar cells connected in parallel, which they said have higher partial-shading tolerance compared with cells connected in strings. The panels are reportedly less sensitive to partial-shading geometries than shingled modules.

South Korean technology giant Samsung is reportedly looking to develop a ‘mega scale’ renewable generation, storage, and green manufacturing hub in the Northern Territory, its government has announced. However, no actual details on the size, nor any real specifics, appear to be known.

South Korean researchers have developed a long-term solar irradiance prediction method based on a reinforcement learning algorithm. They claim that the new model is able to forecast solar radiation for more than a year using just two weeks of solar radiation learning.

South Korean companies Posco and East-West Power are developing a new building-integrated solar photovoltaic solution. The new product uses special galvanized steel as the panel’s backside that Posco says lasts five to 10 times longer than standard steel.

The consortium partners behind an export-scale green hydrogen and ammonia production facility planned for north Queensland will advance the mega project from concept to feasibility stage after signing a formal heads of agreement.