Energy Storage

Australian energy giant AGL has officially opened its first operational grid-scale battery – the 250 MW/250 MWh facility at its Torrens Island power station site in South Australia.

Chinese battery industry heavyweight Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) announced a new electric vehicle battery that reportedly enables long-range driving on a fast, ten-minute charge. It expects mass production to begin by the end of this year, and vehicles equipped with the battery to be available in the first quarter of 2024.

The South Korean authorities have kicked off a tender for 65 MW/260 MWh of storage capacity, in support of extensive battery systems on Jeju Island.

Bosch is currently selling the new heat pumps in the DACH markets and is planning to expand sales in other European markets in September. The new products use propane as the refrigerant and integrated sound diffusers. The manufacturer is also offering a power meter/sensor enabling the heat pumps to work with any existing PV system and battery storage solution at home.

Developed by scientists in the Netherlands, the heat battery prototype consists of a storage module based on potassium carbonate and an electricity-driven mechanical system that maintains continuous charging or discharging powers. Through a series of simulations, the research group found that the device can significantly reduce a dwelling’s electricity consumption for heating.

The hub could potentially remove more than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, or the equivalent of eliminating 220,000 gasoline vehicles on the road annually.

Extensive load-shedding, lack of grid capacity, failing coal-fired power stations, lack of progress in clean power procurement, and even vandalism have prompted various South African government departments to take renewables generation into their own hands, seemingly without any overarching plan, as Bryan Groenendaal reports.

Indian scientists have suggested building pumped-hydro storage systems connected to solar plants using mines as the lower reservoir and nearby rivers as the upper reservoir. They claim that the proposed combination may reach a levelized cost of energy of $0.2693/kWh.

Everoze Partner Abdul Sotayo highlights some of the issues that continue to hold back progress on clean energy in Nigeria, where energy poverty remains a problem, despite the nation’s vast solar potential.

Biwatt Power, a Chinese manufacturer, has developed new residential sodium-ion batteries with an efficiency rate of 97% and a projected lifespan of more than 3,000 cycles.