Oceania

As the outbreak takes its toll on solar panel and battery manufacturing in China, Australia is bracing for disruptions in the supply chain.

The Australian research team which developed the device said the higher efficiency was achieved through a nanowire design which eliminates the interface inside the titanium dioxide band.

WoodMac analysts say the amount of new battery manufacturing capacity added in the nation this year could fall by as much as 10% because of the outbreak. With Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory affected by the extended new-year-holiday shutdown, the analyst warned of potential supply shortages for Australia and the U.S. and U.K.

With fire-extinguishing rain on the east coast, coronavirus flagged an urgent threat and PM Scott Morrison drumming up support for technology and free-market forces to beat climate change, it all made for a weekend to shake the resolve of some Australians to act on their carbon emissions. Understanding the psychology of how we perceive risk and commit to action can help us focus and keep fighting the fight.

Batteries, and the raw materials that make them, are a frequent target of public criticism. The high water consumption required for lithium extraction is speeding up desertification around the salt lakes of Latin America’s “lithium triangle”, for example. The mining debate highlights general problems with the extraction of raw materials including copper, crude oil and lithium but international companies can still influence extraction methods – and there are plenty of different approaches.

Australian peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading pioneer Power Ledger has won a lucrative contract with Alperia SpA, one of Italy’s largest renewable electricity utilities.

The Chinese-Canadian module manufacturer will supply panels to the U.K.-based developer over several years. The modules are destined for projects in the United States and Australia.

Australian researchers have unveiled hydrogenation technology to reduce light and elevated temperature-induced degradation in Czochralski silicon PERC solar cells. The developers say the process can minimize degradation without sacrificing performance in cells and modules.

Solarwatt’s Vision glass-glass solar PV modules have pushed the technology’s resilience even further after passing cyclone testing in Darwin, Australia.

An international research team is proposing a fuzzy logic approach for optimal site selection of large-scale wind, solar and hybrid wind-solar power projects. The new methodology is based on criterial components for energy optimization through climatological, topographic and human factors.