Mapping Australia’s battery mineral waste ‘gold mine’
To encourage industry to consider the battery mineral opportunities currently sitting in neglected heaps around the country, Geoscience Australia and its partners are developing an Atlas of Australian Mine Waste. The public database hopes to highlight the opportunity in reprocessing mining waste for new markets.
Aussie researchers find best BIPV envelope design alternatives
Scientists in Australia have developed an optimisation framework for building-integrated photovoltaics that allows the selection of design variables according to user preferences. Their model considers PV-related features such as tilt angle, window-to-wall ratio (WWR), PV placement, and PV product type, as well as objective functions and constraints such as the net present value and the payback period.
Australia prepares for first solar ‘upcycling’ facility while recycling operations expand
As Australia stares down a deluge of worn out solar panels, recycling – and indeed upcycling – programs are grinding into gear. In Victoria, a site has been found for Australia’s first facility to recover and reuse solar module materials, while Reclaim PV has extended its manufacturer partner and pickup location lists.
How an Australian-made AI model unlocks accurate prediction of organic PV efficiency
For the last few months, while her city lay dormant in lockdown, Nastaran Meftahi has been tucked away developing a machine learning model to predict where the most promise for next-generation organic solar cells is held.
Wind and solar cut rather than boost Australia’s wholesale electricity prices
Wholesale prices in the National Electricity Market have climbed significantly in recent years. The increase has coincided with a rapid increase in the proportion of electricity supplied by wind and solar generators. But that needn’t mean the increase in wind and solar generation caused the increase in prices. It might have been caused by other things.
Researchers develop method to synthesize graphene from eucalyptus bark
A team of Australian and Indian researchers has developed a method to synthesize soluble graphene in a cost-effective and eco-friendly way from one of Australia’s most abundant resources, gum trees.
RMIT researchers demonstrate first working proton battery
Scientists at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have demonstrated the first working example of a ‘proton battery’, which utilizes a carbon electrode and reversible hydrogen fuel cell for the storage of energy. The scientists say that their small prototype has already demonstrated similar storage capacities to commercially available lithium-ion batteries, with plenty of potential for further optimization.
