Japan

The Suiso Frontier cargo vessel docked at Victoria’s Port of Hastings on Friday to take on the world’s first shipment of liquid hydrogen. The ship’s arrival is a landmark for the Japanese-Australian Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain pilot project, which sees liquefied hydrogen generated from brown coal, and an engineering milestone in itself. But while the Australian government describes the product as “clean”, experts maintain that carbon capture and storage technology has proven only to be an expensive failure.

While there are still many uncertainties as to the way in which hydrogen trade might evolve and change economic ties and political dynamics between countries, experts agree that green hydrogen can bring winds of change to the global energy arena. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, significant geoeconomic and geopolitical shifts are just around the corner.

Toshiba has developed a battery that can be used with PV modules, with a design that charges and discharges at high currents. The new 20Ah-HP SCiB product has a rated capacity of 20Ah, a nominal voltage of 2.3V, and an input power of 1,900W. It measures 116 mm x 22 mm x 106 mm and weighs 545 grams.

The new heterojunction module series is compatible with Panasonic’s Evervolt battery and has a power output ranging from 400 to 410 W. It also features a temperature coefficient of -0.26% per degree Celsius.

Wood Mackenzie has predicted solar equipment cost increases will ease back after last year saw the average cost of solar electricity rise for the first time in the Asia-Pacific region.

A Japanese group has developed a storage system with potential applications in residential storage, electric vehicles, drones and Internet-of-Things devices.

Researchers from Tokyo Tech, AIST, and Yamagata University have demonstrated drastic reduction of resistance at the interface between the positive electrode and solid electrolyte of an all-solid-state lithium battery is achievable by annealing the entire battery cell.

In other news, Oil India is setting up a 100 kW green hydrogen production facility in Assam, while the German government is providing €60 million for a project aimed at preparing electrolyzer technologies for industrial production at gigawatt scale.

The record efficiency was achieved by engineering the cell with reduced copper(II) oxide (CuO) and copper (Cu) impurities in the thin-film deposition. It showed an open-circuit voltage of 1.13 V, a short-circuit current of 10.63 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 0.696. 

Researchers from Tokyo Tech have developed an alternative to hydrogen energy storage which is smaller in size and more efficient. The system utilizes carbon as an energy source and demonstrates superior power density and charge-discharge efficiency of 38% over 10 cycles.