Storage

The government of the Australian state of Queensland has committed AUD 48 million ($33 million) to develop two pumped hydro projects.

Lake Onslow, New Zealand, could become home to one of the world’s largest pumped-hydro storage facilities. A local consortium is now conducting a feasibility study and is investigating possible system designs and precise locations.

US-based H2 Industries plans to produce hydrogen from organic waste and non-recyclable plastic. pv magazine recently spoke with its executive president, Michael Stusch, about the main technologies behind the project.

UK scientists have compared the performance of lithium-ion storage systems and vanadium redox flow batteries for a modeled 636 kW commercial PV system in southern California. They have found that both technologies, coupled with an oversized PV array, could achieve a levelized cost of electricity of less than $0.22/kWh, while offering a self-sufficiency ratio of 0.95.

Japan’s Arth has designed an autonomous habitation module that produces water in places without energy and water infrastructure. The company said the residential unit could also be used as an emergency evacuation site.

Scientists in Norway have managed to run a micro gas turbine plant on pure hydrogen. They claim their experiment paves the way for the use of existing infrastructure to generate heat and power with the green fuel.

Mitsubishi and Japanese utility Kyushu Electric Power are teaming up to use more grid-scale storage, in order to reduce financial losses caused by curtailment.

Japan’s Rinnai has unveiled what it claims is the world’s first 100% hydrogen combustion technology for residential water heaters. It is currently using the hydrogen water heater in demonstration projects in Australia, prior to commercialization.

Italian solar panel manufacturer Sunerg has developed an integrated photovoltaic water heater solution based on two resistances. The system relies on a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller and can work with a PV module with a power output of up to 450 W.

The US multinational will expand the solar and battery energy storage manufacturing capacity at its factory in Tamil Nadu to 9 GW per annum by the end of 2022. The factory manufactures the FlexInverter power conversion solution and the FlexReservoir utility-scale energy storage systems.