Australia

Nordgold intends to build a 13MW PV plant with battery storage that will provide power to its Burkina Faso gold mines, thanks to an agreement signed with Total Eren and equity investor Africa Energy Management Platform (AEMP) on Tuesday.

Lightsource BP has signed financing agreements to develop its maiden utility-scale solar project in Australia.

A German start-up achieved more than 99% efficiency when charging a vehicle developed by the Bochum University of Applied Sciences with electricity from solar cells. Ambibox’s DC charging technology was used in a research project in the Australian desert.

Analyst WoodMac has spelled out the urgent need to decarbonize the global hydrogen production industry. While the fuel can offer a sustainable grid balancing act for intermittent renewables, in its current fossil-fuel driven form it is pumping out more than 800 tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

The Solar Team of the Eindhoven University of Technology won the World Solar Challenge in Australia in the cruiser category. This is the fourth year in a row that the Eindhoven team won gold in this category for family solar-powered cars, the university announced on Twitter.

Although the International Energy Agency’s latest renewables report forecasts impressive solar growth there is still a nagging feeling it has produced conservative estimates and the emphasis on sharing costs with grid operators is predictable.

An Australian utility is to develop a 60MW solar farm that will be connected to two iron mines in Australia, transforming them into the first to be run entirely by renewables during the day.

GES to build 97MW solar plant for Engie in Chile. Sterling & Wilson bags 200MW EPC order in Australia. BHEL tenders for Floating solar equipment at Indian coal plant. ACC and Hyperion for JV in Hong Kong.

A solar car competing in the World Solar Challenge has rolled over on the Stuart Highway, just north of Coober Pedy in South Australia.

Having begun on 13 October and being due to end on 18 October, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is underway.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has released a new paper outlining a blueprint to coordinate generation and transmission investments. The draft proposal seeks to overhaul wholesale pricing and transmission access to lower electricity costs and the ever-increasing risks inherent in getting new renewable energy generation capacity into the network.

Beijing’s sudden retreat on electric vehicle subsidies in the summer has caused the value of lithium to hit the floor, with disastrous effects on the balance sheets of Chinese companies which had invested big in supply chains to support anticipated huge demand.

With sun the common component of solar energy production and agriculture, a new company in northern New South Wales is set to combine the benefits of sowing PV and forage crops in the same soil.

The building-sized trucks run on diesel and prompt logistical complications as large amounts of diesel must be shipped to remote mining sites. Attempts to decarbonize the mining sector will have to consider the heavy-duty vehicles.

Australian renewables investor Lyon Group has penned an agreement with China Huadian Corporation which will see the duo co-develop and invest in power-plus-battery energy storage systems across Australia, China and other Asian markets.