Electric Vehicles

Ikea Adelaide is leading the way for the Swedish giant’s global aspirations towards 100% renewable energy through what is being touted as Australia’s largest grid-connected commercial microgrid. The two stage project boasts a range of unique features which could lay the foundations for a new sustainable energy model for Australia.

Like most Tesla events, speculation and hype were at all-time highs after CEO Elon Musk hinted that something “very insane” would be revealed. He was not far off! Tesla detailed a completely new cell, along with plans to improve manufacturing, costs and shrink the battery supply chain. With such bold claims come many questions.

AGL has become the first Australian company to join EV100, a global initiative to make electric vehicles the norm by 2030. AGL’s commitment will see it transition its 400-strong fleet of corporate cars transition to EVs, one of the few proactive shifts the energy giant is making to meet its updated climate statement.

With electric vehicles starting to gain traction, the International Energy Agency’s updated, ten-year e-mobility forecast has suggested geopolitical and economic concerns will trump environmental niceties when it comes to encouraging recycling. But what price ever-cheaper batteries?

Australia has certainly demonstrated its appetite for solar power. Now, with the average lifespan of a solar panel being approximately 20 years, many installations from the early 2000’s are set to reach end-of-life. Will they end up in landfill or be recycled? The cost of recycling is higher than landfill, and the value of recovered materials is smaller than the original, so there’s limited interest in recycling. But given the presence of heavy metals, such as lead and tin, if waste is managed poorly, we’re on track for another recycling crisis. A potential time bomb could present itself as an opportunity, however, if the global EV industry showed an interest in the recovered solar products.

MIT scientists have suggested used electric vehicle batteries could offer a more viable business case than purpose-built systems for the storage of grid scale solar power in California. Such ‘second life’ EV batteries, may cost only 60% of their original purchase price to deploy and can be effectively aggregated for industrial scale storage even if they have declined to 80% of their original capacity.

Homegrown fast-charging technology company Tritium has launched “Plug and Charge,” a seamlessly simultaneous way to charge your electric vehicle and pay for the pleasure.

According to a new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 58% of global passenger vehicle sales in 2040 will come from electric vehicles, yet they will make up less than 33% of all cars on the road.

As part of the NSW Government’s ambition to transition the entire public bus fleet to zero emissions, Transport NSW is seeking out expressions of interest for participants in trials of zero emission buses. 

The Finniss Lithium Project will be the first-ever lithium mine to be built outside of Western Australia.