Energy Storage

Only by working together can African nations overcome the obstacles to exploiting their abundant renewables resources and producing affordable green hydrogen – for use at home and in a European economy keen to wean itself off Russian gas, an online event has been told.

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.

Homeowners who participate in a new Enphase pilot project will connect their home batteries to the US grid, sharing energy through Green Mountain Power’s distribution system in exchange for financial incentives.

UK climate tech business Levidian has presented a new device. Loop hydrogen has a typical levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of around £2.27/kg, the company told pv magazine. Meanwhile, companies are considering investment in the Celtic Sea, Hamburg, and Galicia and Toyota has announced that hydrogen-powered engine performance has been improved to levels comparable to gasoline engines in just six months.

The International Renewable Energy Agency’s latest global outlook has spelled out just how ‘woefully’ far the world is from capping temperature rises at 1.5C, and lamented: ‘The stimulus and recovery efforts associated with the pandemic have also proved a missed opportunity.’

Vattenfall and Siemens Energy are building an 8MW heat pump for district heating applications in Berlin. The facility will be powered by wind and solar via the electrical grid and will provide heating and cooling to the local district heating network.

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.

The developer last year sold off 2.9GW of solar generation capacity to state-owned entities to reduce its debt pile by $1.76 billion and has another 298MW up for sale as it repeated its intent to switch to blue, and later, green hydrogen.

German scientists have tried to determine whether a PV system linked to a small electrolyzer, a fuel cell, and lithium-ion batteries could fully power a grid-connected household. Their new proposal consists of a 6.8kW PV array, a 5kW electrolyzer, a 1.24kW fuel cell system, and battery storage.

The US manufacturer has expanded the battery capacity options for its SunVault Storage product, up to 26 kWh and 52 kWh configurations.