Energy Storage

Skylab, a solar tracking distributor and renewable energy project developer, has unveiled ambitious plans to build about 1 GW of solar and battery energy storage facility in the Australian state of Queensland.

Lhyfe has revealed plans to jointly develop offshore renewable green hydrogen with Centrica in the United Kingdom. Separately, the Paris-listed hydrogen producer said it has also acquired a stake in Finland’s Flexens.

Samsung and the city of Oxford in the UK have announced the trial of a neighborhood heat pump scheme in Rose Hill, Oxford. The project aims to connect communities to local installers, helping to remove key barriers to heat pump uptake, including cost. Up to 150 Samsung air-source heat pumps will be installed at a reduced price of GBP 2,600 ($3,185) each.

The Polish government says it will launch the fifth round of its Mój Prąd program in April. The scheme will offer rebates for air and ground heat pumps, as well as residential batteries.

Relectrify, an Australian battery technology startup, has secured approval from the International Electrotechnical Commission for its ReVolve energy storage product, which opens the way for it to globally scale up its cell-level control tech.

Germany’s Bosch has developed an air-source heat pump that uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant. It can produce between 3.9 kW and 6.7 kW of heat, and domestic hot water to a temperature of up to 75 C. It says the heat pump can be paired with rooftop solar to maximize self-consumption.

Australian materials tech developer Kinaltek has unveiled a one-step production process that it says can convert common silica powders into battery-grade nanosilicon for less than 5% of the cost of existing technologies. The innovation paves the way for the use of silicon nanoparticles in high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

Energy Systems Catapult has released interim data from air-source heat pump field monitoring in the United Kingdom between November 2020 and August 2022. Figures show that heat pumps are three times more efficient than gas boilers and that their median coefficient of performance (COP) on cold days is 2.44, compared to 2.80 year round.

After 800 Sungrow batteries were impacted by an outage, the Chinese manufacturer informed its local German partners about the solution to the problem. However, it remains unclear how quickly the affected battery management systems can be replaced.

Germany’s AEG is selling two versions of its new high-voltage residential batteries, with nominal capacities of 10 kWh and 15 kWh. They come with a 10-year warranty and reportedly have a lifecycle of more than 6,000 cycles.