Energy Storage

The government of the Australian state of Queensland has committed AUD 48 million ($33 million) to develop two pumped hydro projects.

US-based H2 Industries plans to produce hydrogen from organic waste and non-recyclable plastic. pv magazine recently spoke with its executive president, Michael Stusch, about the main technologies behind the project.

There is enormous demand for renewables to enter the grid, and for power purchase agreements to make use of them. However, as more renewables feed into the grid at intermittent periods, the risk of “revenue cannibalization” increases. Swiss consultancy Pexapark’s latest report looks at the “cannibalization effect” and how the solar PPA market can adapt.

UK scientists have compared the performance of lithium-ion storage systems and vanadium redox flow batteries for a modeled 636 kW commercial PV system in southern California. They have found that both technologies, coupled with an oversized PV array, could achieve a levelized cost of electricity of less than $0.22/kWh, while offering a self-sufficiency ratio of 0.95.

Japan’s Arth has designed an autonomous habitation module that produces water in places without energy and water infrastructure. The company said the residential unit could also be used as an emergency evacuation site.

In other news, Plug Power revealed plans to build a 35-ton-per-day green hydrogen generation plant at Belgium’s Port of Antwerp-Bruges and UK researchers developed an artificial leaf device made from bismuth oxyiodide that is able to harvest sunlight to produce hydrogen fuels.

Italian solar panel manufacturer Sunerg has developed an integrated photovoltaic water heater solution based on two resistances. The system relies on a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller and can work with a PV module with a power output of up to 450 W.

The project, planned at a council-owned commercial development, is expected to be connected to 2 MW of storage.

UK scientists have designed a new type of aqueous organic redox flow battery based on ion-exchange membranes made of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity. The battery showed a very low-capacity decay rate of 0.0335% per day for 2,100 charge-discharge cycles.

Panels will be installed at waste sites in five mining towns as part of the latest, €2.4 billion ($2.57 million) round of investment from a fund set up to help coal-dependent European member states with the energy transition.