Western Australia

Have we reached a tipping point, from building the case with mining companies for deploying renewable energy … to where renewable energy is helping to build the case for mining?

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.

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.

A West Australian vanadium explorer, Technology Metals, has signed an agreement with a prominent Japanese company to explore the possibility of manufacturing vanadium electrolyte in Australia – a key component of the increasingly popular vanadium redox flow batteries.

West Australian smart solar glass developer ClearVue continues to explore new applications for its building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology, offering up its solar glass windows to Murdoch University for a research project into near-zero energy transportable mining accommodation.

ASX-listed Province Resources is pushing ahead quickly with its plan to develop a 1 GW hybrid solar PV and wind farm in Western Australia as part of a proposal to produce renewable hydrogen for domestic and foreign markets.

With reins tightly held by China, a handful of players are trying to prise the production of a core ingredient of lithium-ion batteries out of Goliath’s hand before the battery boom begins in earnest with the electrification of the transport sector. The head of one of those companies, WA start-up International Graphite, spoke to pv magazine Australia about the hunger of both investors and customers, and the surprisingly collaborative race to feed global demand.

Western Australia has officially extended the reach of its new darling: stand-alone power systems, or SAPS. In a state first, Government-owned network services provider Western Power has deployed units at two Perth Hills properties following bushfires earlier this month.

Hybrid energy systems are blooming in Australia’s remote locations, as renewables are increasingly partnered with gas or diesel to advance the greening of desert industries and communities that operate far from the grid.

With a state election looming and a Liberal Opposition eager to embrace renewables, Western Australia’s McGowan government has announced a $259 million renewables-focussed package in a bid to retain power and primacy in the progressive space.