Western Europe

Dutch renewables company Photon Energy has announced it will build “the world’s largest” solar-plus-storage project to date, teaming with Australian technology provider and project developer RayGen Resources to develop a facility that will deliver 300 MW of solar generation and 3.6 GWh of energy storage.

In the coming weeks, Western Australian mining-cum-materials recovery company Neometals will begin testing at its newly commissioned battery recycling demonstration plant in Hichenbach, Germany, the product of a joint venture with SMS Group. The Primobius facility, as it’s named, has already garnered considerable attention and is a finalist in 2022’s prestigious German Sustainability Award. “We want Primobius to be the preeminent recycler in the world,” the company’s managing director, Chris Reed, told pv magazine Australia.

The fallout from the Woodside and McGowan government’s greenwashing of the former’s ‘H2Perth’ hydrogen and ammonia project announced last week continues, with Fortescue Future Industries and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest making a mockery of Woodside on Twitter before announcing a massive green hydrogen deal in the United Kingdom for COP26.

A number of Australian battery material recovery projects got off the ground this week, including the completion of Western Australian outfit Neometal’s battery recycling demonstration plant, a Queensland-Japanese joint venture studying the extraction of cobalt from copper tailings as well as the funding of Sydney-based startup Novalith.

U.K.-based Gravitricity is planning to deploy its gravity-based energy storage solution at a decommissioned coal mine in Czechia. The project is part of a plan to commence a full-scale, 4-8 MW prototype scheme in a disused mine next year.

Italy-headquartered energy storage specialist New Horizons Ahead has been awarded the contract to build a 100 MW/200 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at the site of the decommissioned Kwinana Power Station near Perth in Western Australia.

A report from Australia’s Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre which analysed the development of battery hubs in the U.S., Germany and Japan, has found that co-location and cooperation between industry and government were key to hub success. For Australia to play the same game, it will have to leverage its wealth of resources, and clean up its act along the way.

Belgian materials company Umicore has signed a contract with Australia headquartered Vulcan Energy Resources to purchase up to 42,000 tons of lithium hydroxide over a five year period beginning in 2025. The material will be used in Umicore’s production of cathode materials for lithium-ion cell manufacturers.

A new study from researchers at the universities of Lancaster and Reading in the UK has managed to quantify the economic boost provided by the symbiotic relationship between solar farms and honeybee hives.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures’ (FRV) Australian platform includes 637 MW (DC) in projects already operational or under construction, and a pipeline comprising 7 GW of solar projects and 1.3 GWh of battery storage.