Oceania

Australian solar startup SunDrive has announced “a breakthrough” in mass production-compatible heterojunction technology, after recording an efficiency result of 26.07% with a silver-free, commercial-size silicon solar PV cell.

“We’re not talking about incremental improvement, this is a really giant leap,” Hysata CEO Paul Barrett told pv magazine Australia. Hysata is commercializing a breakthrough made at the University of Wollongong which effectively, Barrett says, invented a “brand new category of electrolyzer,” vastly improving efficiency.

A multibillion-dollar solar, battery storage, wind and potentially green hydrogen project in the Australian state of Victoria is moving forward after securing backing from the Hostplus superannuation fund. The planned project is owned by Octopus Australia, under its joint venture with Clean Energy Finance Corp.

Sun Cable’s ambitious plans to build the world’s largest solar PV and battery energy storage project in Australia’s remote far north are a step closer to fruition after two of the nation’s richest men provided support for a AUD 210 million ($152.2 million) capital raise.

Trina Solar has unveiled a new PV module for residential and commercial applications. It has chosen the Australian market for the global launch of the new rooftop solar panel.

The government of the state of Victoria will fund a floating PV array and an initiative to locally manufacture solar batteries and install a portable renewable energy system for community services during emergencies, as part of its Latrobe Valley program.

Researchers from Australia’s Monash University have created a new generation of lithium-sulfur batteries to provide a cheaper, cleaner and faster-charging energy storage solution that outlasts lithium-ion alternatives and is rechargeable hundreds of times without failing.

Researchers in Australia have compared the firing resistance of p-type and n-type poly-Si/SiOx passivating contacts and found that the former have better resistance to hydrogen diffusivity and higher passivation quality after firing.

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.

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.