Western Australia

Mining giant Rio Tinto has tapped NRW Holdings to begin construction of a large-scale solar PV and battery energy storage system at the Anglo-Australian multinational’s $2.6 billion Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in Western Australia.

Australian-headquartered mining giant BHP has signed a nickel supply agreement with United States-based electric vehicles manufacturer Tesla amid reports it is considering exiting oil and gas in a move that would accelerate its retreat from fossil fuels.

Western Australian company Australian Vanadium Limited has been awarded $3.69 million in federal government funding to fast-track manufacturing of large-scale vanadium redox flow battery systems that can be used to support rooftop solar PV or in off-grid settings such as mining, agriculture and remote communities.

Western Australia’s McGowan Government has joined fellow state and territory governments in joining the Smart Energy Council’s industry-led Zero Carbon Certification Scheme. As the region with the largest proposed green hydrogen projects in the world, this is a significant step toward ensuring a future in which green hydrogen is prioritised.

With 1 MW of rooftop solar entering the Western Australian energy system each week the state government has announced a multi-million dollar package which will allow for an update of its grid transition strategy which aims to accommodate a rapid shift to renewable energy.

Broome, a coastal town on Western Australia’s north, has barely any rooftop solar – though not for lack of interest. In fact, local residents were so hungry to install solar, they exhausted the state government’s 900 kW allocation of additional hosting capacity by mid-morning.

The proposed mega-project would be the world’s largest renewable hub if realised, with a massive 50 GW of solar and wind being used to produce either 3.5 million tonnes of green hydrogen or, alternatively, 20 million tonnes of green ammonia yearly. The $100 billion Western Green Energy Hub, as its called, is being proposed by two of the same companies behind the 26 GW Asia Renewable Energy Hub, which last month had its environmental approvals rejected by the federal environment minister.

To truly seize on the opportunity afforded by the imminent battery boom, Australia needs to look beyond its historic role as a supplier of raw materials and broaden the horizons by adding value with downstream products and manufacturing, according to a recent Future Battery Industries report. Pv magazine Australia caught up with Vincent Algar, managing director of Australian Vanadium Limited – a company operating in this promising yet thorny realm.

We’ve ticked over into July 2021, and so have left Q2 behind us… now with two units at Callide back in service, and also three units at Yallourn as well (though Yallourn unit four missed its expected return to service on Wednesday 30th June). Let’s hope prices continue to settle down.

The promise of solar windows have captivated scientists and engineers for decades. Now, West Australian company ClearVue says it not only has a fully transparent, scalable, industry-ready solar window in production, but it’s just 18 months away from cracking 5% efficiency, thanks to a research partnership.