Oceania

US solar tracker supplier Array Technologies plans to set up a factory in Australia, after winning a contract to supply trackers for a 102 MW solar farm in the Australian state of Victoria.

Norway’s DNV has acquired Australia-based solar data specialist Solcast for an unspecified sum.

Just weeks after announcing its intent to build a AUD 300 million ($210 million) lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Australia, Recharge Industries has reportedly joined a host of other bidders considering the revival of collapsed UK battery company Britishvolt. Investment could also revive plans to construct a battery cell gigafactory in northern England.

Japan’s largest oil company, Eneos, has opened a green hydrogen demonstration plant in Brisbane, Australia. The project is relatively small, producing just 20 kilograms of green hydrogen per day, but Eneos Senior Vice President Yuichiro Fujiyama says the company will expand it in the “near future.”

Sun Cable, the company behind the world’s largest solar and storage project, has officially gone up for sale after entering voluntary administration in Australia in January. Its administrator, FTI Consulting, is seeking binding offers of acquisition or recapitalization by the end of April, with a deal to be finalized by the end of May.

H2i Technology has developed a hydrogen enhancement kit that injects hydrogen into existing diesel engines to reduce diesel use. It is building 10 commercial-ready systems and plans to soon start field testing.

University of Adelaide researchers and their international partners have successfully used seawater with no pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen. They did this by introducing an acid layer over the catalysts in situ.

Researchers from Victoria’s Deakin University say they have successfully tested a new process that can safely and effectively extract silicon from end-of-life solar panels, and then convert it into nano materials worth more than $45,000 (USD 31,500) per kilogram, in order to build better batteries.

Construction has started on a 93 MW solar project in the Australian state of Victoria. The installation, which has been under development for at least five years, was sold to Enel Green Power in 2019.

Two of Australia’s richest people are expected to be rivals in the bidding process for Sun Cable, the developer of what could be the world’s biggest intercontinental solar and energy storage project. Administrators indicate that the sale process could be completed within three months.