ARENA

World-leading solar researcher UNSW Scientia Professor Martin Green says that PV research activities in Australia right across the value chain will be accelerated by the recent $41.5 million (USD 28.5 million) funding awards from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The funding will foster the development of ultra-low-cost solar by extending and expanding nine UNSW solar research programs.

The strength of applications for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s ultra-low-cost solar research funding round was so strong the agency had to add $1.5 million (USD 1.03 million) to its original allocation. The strength of competition pushed the process into 2023, but now the 13 research projects aiming to achieve ultra-low-cost solar have been awarded.

The Australian government has announced a $176 million (USD 117.5 million) funding injection which it expects will unleash almost $3 billion of investment in advanced battery technology, delivering a step change in grid-forming capability across the National Electricity Market.

Australian technology start-up Infravision will team with New South Wales network operator Transgrid in a trial of a “next generation” line-monitoring system designed to optimise the performance of existing electrical transmission infrastructure and support the roll out of more renewable energy.

While the efficiency of solar cells will always be important, scaling innovation in sustainable cell technology and solar deployment, is the new game in town. With hydrogen exports and production of green metals in its sights, Australia has some breakthrough tech coming down the pike, as pv magazine Australia’s Natalie Filatoff reports.

ARENA has awarded global technology company Calix $947,035 (USD 612,509) to help fund an eleven-month study into the feasibility of deploying the company’s proprietary Zero Emissions Steel Technology (ZESTY) at a demonstration plant – something both Calix and ARENA are touting as a pathway to green steel manufacturing using hydrogen in Australia.

In a project where the old world of energy meets the new, AGL will investigate the technical and financial feasibility of using thermal batteries to provide the steam for a 200 MW turbine at South Australia’s Torrens Island Power Plant, which usually run on gas.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency is one of those rare institutions that managed to survive the political energy battles over the last decade. Initially established in 2012, the federally funded agency has dispensed more than $1.9 billion (USD 1.2 billion) in funding to date to support renewable technologies, often at the ‘pre-commercial’ stage.

Construction of a large-scale solar-powered green hydrogen and ammonia development in Western Australia will begin next month with ammonia producer Yara and the Australian arm of French renewables giant Engie announcing on Friday the final investment decision on the $87.1 million project.

Newcastle-based clean energy company MGA Thermal has secured federal government funding to develop a 5 MWh pilot plant to demonstrate the generation of steam from stored thermal energy with the capacity to provide a new form of medium-term energy storage.