Oceania

Renewables developer Vast Solar has signed a key engineering contract as it pushes toward construction of a 30 MW/288 MWh thermal concentrated solar power (CSP) plant with more than eight hours of energy storage capacity near Port Augusta, South Australia.

Vale and Central South University have launched a joint laboratory for low-carbon and hydrogen metallurgy in Changsha, in China’s Hunan province, while Nippon Steel has secured approval to acquire U.S. Steel.

The government of the Australian state of Queensland says it has committed AUD 2.5 million ($1.6 million) to progress the development of an “Australian first” solar-panel recycling scheme, in preparation for “thousands” of PV modules installed on rooftops and in large-scale solar farms that are approaching end of life.

Australia has firmly established its status as a global leader in residential solar deployment, with 35% of all homes already equipped with rooftop systems. However, new figures from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) reveal that there are almost 50 GW of “untapped PV potential” on residential buildings across the country.

The Silicon to Solar report, partly funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, outlines ways to restore solar manufacturing to the nation with a little help from the country’s major trading partner – China.

Engie has told pv magazine that the developers of the H2Sines.Rdam installation have decided to terminate the project to produce hydrogen in Portugal and send it to the Netherlands, while Fortescue said it has opened an electrolyzer production facility in Australia.

SGC and SMO say they plan to install 100 MW of solar waste-to-energy systems in Australia. They aim to deploy a total of 50 waste-to-energy units in the next three years, with plans to scale up to 1 GW in the future.

Zen Energy has secured approval from Australia’s WaterNSW to investigate how to transform Sydney’s biggest water storage facility into a 1 GW pumped hydro project capable of supplying on-demand power for up to eight hours.

S-5!, a supplier of mounting systems, plans to release two new mounting components for rooftop PV systems, including a new mount that allows for module-level power electronics to be attached directly to solar panel frames.

The Australian federal government has unveiled plans for a Future Made in Australia Act, proposing taxpayer-funded incentives to advance renewable energy industries, manufacturing, and infrastructure to stake the nation’s place in the global clean energy race.