Technology and R&D

Australia-based mining giant Fortescue has started the development of an electric train that recharges itself using gravity, after settling its recent purchase of UK-based Williams Advanced Engineering.

A UK consortium is developing an organic flow battery technology that could be used in ports to supply power to visiting vessels and in-port assets such as cranes and port vehicles. The electro-chemistry for the batteries is being supplied by German battery manufacturer CMBlu, which developed a flow battery relying on high-performance energy storage molecules that are entirely organic.

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have fabricated an integrated fully PV-powered system to extract fresh water from the atmosphere. The system uses excess heat from the solar modules to evaporate and condense water that can then be used to grow crops. Part of the water is also used to cool down the solar modules through an active cooling technique.

The US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has made a third semi-exclusive commercial license for vanadium redox flow battery technologies, in order to help bring the technology to market.

Built by Korean oil provider SK Energy and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the “Energy Super Station” is equipped with 20kW of solar panels and 300kW of fuel cell stacks. It can refuel conventional combustion vehicles as well as electric vehicles and fuel cell cars.

The device integrates various current outlets that enable it to recharge, simultaneously, mobile phones, tablets or computers as well as all kinds of low-consumption electronic devices such as small appliances or electric tools, by simply unfolding the solar panels and connecting them.

Swedish researchers have developed a novel way to manufacture micro supercapacitors, also known as system-on-a-chip, so they are compatible with other components in system circuits and can be easily tailored for different uses.

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.

Built by a Dutch-Chinese research team, the cell is relying on a new type of hybrid-shaped Cu finger consisting of a rectangular bottom part and a round top part, which was integrated into the cell through a 2-step electrochemical deposition process. The Cu-plated device outperformed both optically and electrically a reference cell fabricated via screen printing.

Erthos has secured $17.5 million in a Series B funding round and has a 2.5GW project pipeline.