UNSW

One of the hotly contested issues in the run-up to the Saturday federal election is whether a proactive response to climate change is more expensive than doing nothing. The Australia Institute has examined 22 reports from academics, government agencies and consultants modeling higher emissions reductions by 2030 and found that none of them shows action on climate change is ‘economy wrecking’. Counting the costs of the major parties’ climate change policies, UNSW finds that impacts of inaction on climate change for both Australia’s economy and jobs outweigh the costs of reducing emissions.

In pursuit of its Australian target of at least 2 GW of renewable projects, Risen Energy has confirmed its partnership with Australia’s cleantech investor Providence Asset Group. 

New research by UNSW examines the economic barriers, the technologies and opportunities in recycling end-of-life silicon photovoltaic modules for profit.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW), the birthplace of pioneering PV technologies, is now developing another innovative solution: a large-scale hybrid energy storage that will combine lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. The first system will be installed at Risen Energy’s 121 MW Yarranlea Solar Farm in Queensland.

Toyota Australia will transform its former manufacturing site in West Melbourne into a renewable energy hub to produce green hydrogen with the help of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). In other hydrogen-related news, researchers at UNSW Sydney with partners H2Store have received a $3.5 million investment from Providence Asset Group to develop a hydrogen residential storage.

Maoneng Australia, John Laing and Decmil have hosted a sod-turning ceremony on-site in Balranald, NSW. The developer has confirmed the solar farm will be co-located with a large-scale grid connected battery, and stated its plans for an additional 500 MW of solar and energy storage to be added in line with the proposed SA-NSW interconnector.

A $2.2 million trial run by Jemena, AusNet Services, and UNSW Sydney will explore how existing network infrastructure can better integrate with solar power, as Australia’s rooftop PV uptake goes from strength to strength.

2018 has been a watershed year for Australia’s PV sector, with the surge to rooftop solar uptake making the country the residential-PV capital of the world. And there’s a considerable potential room for growth, a whopping 50 GW a new study has found.

The UNSW Sunswift solar car team has set a new record for the lowest energy consumption while driving across Australia in an electric car. The team completed the journey between Perth and Sydney two days ahead of schedule with the car’s energy consumption on the journey came in well below the previous record.

UNSW Sydney has partnered with Leadmicro to develop the next generation of PERC solar cells and fast-track their time to market. The Chinese PV production machinery manufacturer is donating $1 million Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) reactor to UNSW to test and adapt a new process for PERC cell solar cell production.