Oceania

Korea Zinc, non-ferrous metal smelting company, has agreed to invest $50 million in Energy Vault, a Switzerland-based gravity storage specialist, in order to use its tech to decarbonize its refining and smelting operations in Australia.

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 Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced a AUD100 million competitive funding round for grid scale batteries. While battery technology agnostic, the projects must be equipped with advanced inverter technology.

French renewable developer and IPP Neoen announced the completion of its Bulgana wind-plus-storage project in the Australian state of Victoria. Having now installed more than 650MW of large-scale solar, wind, and battery storage in the state, the developer has pointed to its “well balanced” renewable portfolio in Victoria including an additional 2GW of projects in the pipeline.

Sydney-based startup SunDrive has given itself an early Christmas present in the form of the fabrication of its first full-sized panel. This panel marks the most recent milestone on the road to commercialization for SunDrive, which set a new world record for commercial-sized silicon solar cell efficiency in September.

Researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia have discovered a new form of graphene that will improve anode and cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries, making them cheaper and more efficient. They are collaborating with Sicona, which has agreed to buy the researchers’ intellectual property.

As Australia stares down a deluge of worn out solar panels, recycling – and indeed upcycling – programs are grinding into gear. In Victoria, a site has been found for Australia’s first facility to recover and reuse solar module materials, while Reclaim PV has extended its manufacturer partner and pickup location lists.

Brisbane-based flow battery company Redflow has completed its single biggest installation to date, a 2 MWh storage system in California for biowaste technology firm Anaergia.

Advances in solar power and other clean energy technologies have failed to keep up with demand for electricity as economies rebound from the Covid crisis and China and India’s fossil fuel appetite will ensure the world stays well short of what is needed for a net zero 2050 for at least the next three years.

Hitachi Energy has won Northern Territory Labor’s tender for the Darwin-Katherine ‘Big Battery’, which is expected to unlock more capacity for residential and industrial PV, generate cost savings of $9.8 million and pay for itself in approximately five years.