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Australia as well as Genesis set up the JV in late 2021 with a goal to establish approximately 500 MW of solar energy in New Zealand over the following 5 years. The

Australia’s sunny climate could help produce hydrogen Yet economics may soon force the Coalition to go green. Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of liquified natural gas (LNG) and the second biggest for coal, but a renewable energy revolution is coming. As Australia’s nearby trading partners, including China, South Korea and Japan, switch to clean energy sources, the country will be forced to adapt, or else find itself without buyers. To stay competitive, Australia is likely to start exporting its abundant sunshine, in the form of hydrogen.   How to turn sunlight into fuel “I see it as inevitable that the world will go to a decarbonised energy supply,” says Alan Finkel, Australia’s chief scientist, who has been tasked with developing a national hydrogen strategy. Hydrogen is a storable and transportable fuel that can be produced cleanly by splitting water molecules with renewable energy. With ample space for solar and wind power, Australia is well-positioned to become a leading hydrogen exporter. The country is already a big energy producer. Fossil fuel exports contributed A$55 billion (US$33 billion) to Australia’s economy last financial year, about 14 per cent of total exports, and they are tipped to hit A$76 billion this year. Much of it goes to the neighbours. Japan buys 45 per cent of Australia’s LNG and 39 per cent of its coal. Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, the country has depended on fossil fuel imports to meet 94 per cent of its energy needs. But under the Paris climate change agreement, Japan has committed to cut carbon emissions by 26 per cent in 2030 (from a 2013 baseline) and by 80 per cent in 2050. It doesn’t have the space or the sunshine to achieve these renewable energy needs. “To meet their climate goals, which are strongly held, they need to import a zero-emissions alternative,” says Finkel. “94% of Japan’s energy is imported, much of it as fossil fuels from Australia”   Toyota has ramped up it;s fuel cell vehicle production in Japan Japan has identified clean hydrogen imports as a solution. Its national hydrogen road map, drawn up in 2017, estimates that Japan could generate between 15 and 30 gigawatts of power from imported hydrogen by the 2030s, which represents about 20 per cent of its current fossil-fuel power generation. As a concept, powering the world using hydrogen isn’t new. In 1923, biologist J. B. S. Haldane proposed a network of windmills across the UK, producing electricity to split water molecules and release hydrogen. If burned correctly, hydrogen only emits water vapour. The idea has been regularly re-examined ever since, but has never caught on. This time it is different, says Craig Buckley, a hydrogen storage researcher at Curtin University, Western Australia. Strong demand, starting in Japan and South Korea, is one major new factor, he says. The other is the plummeting price of solar and wind electricity, which is the biggest cost for clean production of hydrogen. Since 2010, as China has ramped up production of solar panels and wind turbines, the cost of solar electricity has fallen 80 per cent and wind by 50 per cent, and both are still falling. “Renewable energy has come so far down in price in the last 10 years, it enables us to produce hydrogen from renewables at a cost almost competitive with fossil fuels,” Buckley says. “It has been a bit of a game changer.” “That doesn’t mean it will be easy, but it is conceivable, whereas it previously wasn’t,” says Finkel. The target is a hydrogen production price of about A$2 per kilogram, down from around A$6 per kilogram today. To do that, Australia needs to be able to make hydrogen on a vast scale. The technology exists, says Kondo-Francois Aguey-Zinsou, a hydrogen storage researcher at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, it just needs to be put in place. “The big challenge is how we develop the ecosystem for producing hydrogen.” For example, we already know how to produce, store and transport hydrogen for use, but existing techniques are too expensive. “All of those things need innovation and scale for cost to come out of the supply chain,” says Darren Miller, CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which is funding efforts to commercialise these technologies. To export the hydrogen, for example, one possibility is to liquefy it, as with natural gas exports. But whereas natural gas liquefies at -161°C, hydrogen remains a gas down to -253°C, which makes liquefying it more expensive – so improving efficiency of this is one area of research. Other ideas being explored include transporting hydrogen by converting it into molecules that can contain large numbers of hydrogen atoms, such as metal hydrides, and storing it in materials that soak up and release hydrogen like a sponge. But the key challenge, says Miller, is to drive down the cost of the machines that split water into oxygen and hydrogen. Making these electrolysers in production-line quantities would slash the cost per unit. “But it’s a chicken and egg situation,” says Finkel. Until there is big demand for hydrogen, electrolyser production won’t ramp up. But that won’t happen until the cost of hydrogen comes down, which requires big electrolysers. Advancing in little steps is the way forward, Finkel says, by identifying local uses for hydrogen to begin the scaling-up process towards export-level production. Clean hydrogen could replace fossil-fuel-derived hydrogen for industrial processes, for example. An immediate application could be to use electrolytic hydrogen to make ammonia, already produced at vast scale to make fertiliser. And small proportions of hydrogen can be injected into the domestic gas system. “That is a really easy way to build up volume, handling experience and a safety record,” says Finkel. Australia’s combination of renewable resources, the space to exploit them on a huge scale and existing trading relationships with potential hydrogen importers are key advantages in the hydrogen race. But they aren’t unique. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Norway are all among the countries eyeing hydrogen exports (see “Norway’s hydrogen plans”). The European Union would be a ready customer for these countries, but Australia’s trading partners in the Asia-Pacific would also happily take their hydrogen if Australia doesn’t step up. “If we don’t embrace the opportunity, the consequence is very simple: we miss out,” Finkel says. For Australia, the shifting energy landscape is an opportunity and a threat. “We have a key risk to our fossil fuel exports on the one hand,” says Miller. “On the other hand, we have this opportunity to produce hydrogen and replace that lost demand.” The former is out of Australia’s control, he says. “But it is in our control if we want to participate in a new market like hydrogen.” Ultimately, the result of the so-called climate change election won’t affect Australia’s hydrogen future. “All the Australian government is supporting hydrogen exports, so I don’t think the result of the election will change anything,” Aguey-Zinsou says. “This is a business opportunity and, Liberal or Labor, everybody is in support of trying to catch it.” Norway’s hydrogen plans “We are hoping to make liquid hydrogen and ship it to Japan,” says Øivind Wilhelmsen, who is researching the process at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Norway already gets 96 per cent of its electricity from hydroelectric power, which could be used to produce clean hydrogen on a large scale. Norway is also looking at producing hydrogen from natural gas, Wilhelmsen says. Mixing natural gas and steam produces a mixture of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, in an established industrial process called the water-gas shift reaction. Once the hydrogen is separated out, it leaves a high-pressure stream of pure carbon dioxide ready for underground sequestration. “This is clean hydrogen, and the benefit is it is easier to go to large scale,” Wilhelmsen says. It could be a good way to kick-start Norway’s hydrogen export economy.

a subsidiary of Australian power sector investor Tag Pacific, has kicked off the new calendar year with the commencement of early works on two 5 MW solar

We chose Australia for the launch of Vertex S+ to strengthen our placement as Australia's leading solar module brand name and also to take advantage of the

has actually secured funding for its 460MWp Western Downs Green Power Hub in Australia. Situated near Chinchilla in South West Queensland, Western Downs Green Power

said the evaluation showed a solid cravings for science-led innovation in Australia. " CSIRO has evaluated and also predicted energy futures for more than two

in dimension, the Robinvale Solar Ranch provides a litany of firsts for the Australian renewable resource field. The 9.4 MW project appointed recently marks the

has put on hold ambitious plans to invest A$2bn-A$3bn in solar plants in Australia, blaming regulatory hitches that it said were causing delays for renewable

Australian city of Geelong, Victoria, has actually revealed prepare for a AUD 300 million ($ 185.5 million) battery system. French renewables developer Neoen sent

is Aquila Capital's first investment in the energy storage space market in Australia where the German capitalist sees immense opportunities. "We are enjoyed shut

Australian government announced support for six large-scale battery projects in Victoria and South Australia, totaling 995 MW/3,626 MWh of capacity, under

in the exact same region is being explored by International Graphite (IG), an Australia-listed integrated mining and downstream graphite business, with funding from

Australia's roof solar juggernaut remains to grow when faced with unpredictability bordering the Covid-19 break out, pressing nonrenewable fuel source generators out of the National Electricity Market (NEM). A brand-new audit from The Australia Institute reveals that without roof solar, South Australia as well as Queensland would certainly have a substantially greater share of gas as well as coal generation, specifically. From December to March, roof PV offered 16.3% of electrical power in South Australia as well as 7.7% in Queensland, up from 10.1% as well as 5.3% 2 years back, specifically. Australian roofs throughout the NEM included some 203 MW, 215 MW and also 254 MW in January, February and also March, specifically. Something coming close to 3 GW of sub-100 kW systems can have been mounted in 2020 if the fad had actually proceeded without the interruption of the Covid-19 break out. This would certainly have been a huge get on the 2.13 GW of solar mounted in 2019. While the regular monthly market for small innovation certifications has yet to experience a substantial stagnation, a market study has actually discovered that the more spread of domestic PV is most likely to reduce, as several house revenues are currently taking a hit. The study, which was performed last month, exposed that around 50% of participants have actually seen consumer queries decrease by in between 25-50%, with an additional 20% reporting that brand-new leads have actually run out totally. Such task would certainly stand for a 50% tightening in PV installment prices of around 100 MW monthly. However, for currently, roof solar is proceeding its record-breaking touch, as it makes a significantly big payment to total supply. Without roof solar, the circumstance would certainly additionally look a lot various in Queensland as well as South Australia, both NEM states with the biggest shares of roof ability. Gas generation in South Australia would certainly have needed to provide 20% even more power in summertime 2017-18 and also 44% even more in summer season 2019-20. The matching rises of coal-fired generation needed in Queensland would certainly have been 6% in 2017-18 and also 10% in summertime 2019-20, The Australia Institute states. Over the past year, the constant development in renewables has actually been displacing black coal generation. The majority of the variation has actually happened at the Mount Piper power plant, in New South Wales, which has actually been having extreme coal supply issues. On the other hand, in Western Australia, 2 devices at Synergy's Muja Power Station await retired life after being utilized just concerning 35% of the moment, many thanks greatly to roof solar minimizing need on the grid. Integrated wind and also solar generation provided to the NEM has actually boosted by greater than 4.3 TWh given that May 2019, and also if roof solar is additionally consisted of, the exact same boost has actually taken just 6 months, The Australia Institute claims. As well as such development will certainly suffice to fill out the space left by retiring coal-fired generators. " Notwithstanding the different issues currently being run into by the eco-friendly generation market, to expect that development in power provided over the following 3 years will certainly want to the withdrawal of the approximately 10 TWh presently being provided annually by the Liddell coal-fired power plant, the earliest plant on the NEM, is a stretch. Unless, that is, the present power plan mess, which is the source of the majority of the issues, ends up being a lot even worse," The Australia Institute claims. In the year to March 2020, eco-friendly generation, along with roof solar, provided 48.3 TWh, which stood for a 24.9% share of overall NEM generation. The share of renewable resource has sometimes for quick durations surpassed 50%-- most especially on Easter Saturday. This was the very first time that this mark has actually been accomplished over a duration of greater than a couple of mins-- that is, for almost 2 hrs. Market exhausts The Australia Institute additionally assessed the country's exhausts account and also located that the Covid-19 pandemic feedback has actually resulted in enormously minimized exhausts by the transportation industry, however the exact same can not be claimed for the electrical power field. Australia's coal-dominated power industry has actually just seen a 1% reduction in exhausts over a five-week duration which, according to The Australia Institute, verifies the requirement for solid architectural as well as legal reforms to lower discharges in the electrical power industry. " Given the turbulent nature of the pandemic and also its result on industries like transportation, it could stun some that the carbon discharges from power-- one of the most contaminating market in Australia-- have actually been so little," claimed Hugh Saddler, the writer of the audit record. "With many Australians 'based' transportation exhausts have actually gone down considerably however significant power and also gas individuals are still running based on normal, and also there is greater family need." While Europe as well as the United States have actually seen substantial decreases in electrical energy usage as a result of Covid-19 arrest, the Australian market has actually seen no considerable influence. According to The Australia Institute, this is unsurprising, considered that significant power customers such as the mining, mineral handling, and also making markets are still running. Air-conditioning and also lights remained to run in lots of shopping mall, workplaces, resorts as well as instructional centers, although less individuals were utilizing them, and also home power usage increased as individuals stayed at home. From March 16, when significant lockdowns as well as closures started, to April 21, electrical power intake was a little reduced in 2020 than in either 2019 or 2018. In 2020, complete usage was 2.4% less than in 2019 as well as 2.5% less than in 2018, the audit revealed. Yet majority of that decrease was most likely attributable to it being warmer in 2019 throughout that duration, triggering individuals to run air-conditioners more frequently. "While lowered financial task might have added to the decrease, it was absolutely not the only causal element, adding concerning 1% in every year," The Australia Institute claims.

111-MW/291-MWh Templers battery energy storage system project in South Australia. Sungrow, the technology provider, will supply its liquid cooling PowerTitan

plants, which New Energy got in 2018, are being acquired by Banpu Energy Australia, a subsidiary of Thai company Banpu Public Company, with the transaction