Australia’s largest hybrid solar and battery project, the New England Solar Farm and Battery Project in northern New South Wales, reached a new milestone over the weekend, following the delivery of the first of two massive 250 MVA transformers.

A new deal between Fortescue Future Industries and E.ON will see the Australian company deliver 5 million tons of green hydrogen to Germany, the Netherlands, and multiple cities in Europe by 2030.

Western Australian company Global Energy Ventures has had several permissions granted for its 2.8GW green hydrogen export project on the Tiwi Islands, off the coast of the Northern Territory, including potentially increasing the acreage for its proposed solar farm.

Work on the long-awaited 280MW Cultana Solar Farm in South Australia appears set to begin with Simec Energy Australia announcing this week it is preparing to start construction on the $350 million project.

“We’re not talking about incremental improvement, this is a really giant leap,” Hysata CEO Paul Barrett told pv magazine Australia. Hysata is commercializing a breakthrough made at the University of Wollongong which effectively, Barrett says, invented a “brand new category of electrolyzer,” vastly improving efficiency.

A multibillion-dollar solar, battery storage, wind and potentially green hydrogen project in the Australian state of Victoria is moving forward after securing backing from the Hostplus superannuation fund. The planned project is owned by Octopus Australia, under its joint venture with Clean Energy Finance Corp.

The government of the state of Victoria will fund a floating PV array and an initiative to locally manufacture solar batteries and install a portable renewable energy system for community services during emergencies, as part of its Latrobe Valley program.

The realization of biodegradable batteries is a step closer thanks to research from South Australia’s Flinders University, which has developed a 2.8V organic polymer battery. While this battery was made from synthetic polymers, research lead Zhongfan Jia told pv magazine Australia the team’s future iterations will source “materials directly from nature” saying this promises to reduce waste and reliance on mined materials and could have novel applications in fields like biotech.

Australia’s Poseidon Marine H2 says it expects to have a hydrogen-powered boat in Australian waters within the next 18 months, after bringing on board the principal engineers from Dynamic Efficiency.

Australia’s only solar panel manufacturer, has launched its first module designed specifically for utility-scale projects, the 545W Karra module. Australia-made, the module boasts a 23.1% cell efficiency with a low cell-to-module loss rate of 0.07%.