Geelong-based battery technology company Li-S Energy has been awarded $7.86 million in Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) funding to progress its planned lithium-sulfur battery cell manufacturing facility. According to a statement from ARENA on Tuesday, the grant will support plans to scale up production to 1 gigawatt hour per year of battery cell capacity, a…
Battery technology company Relectrify, which aims to provide “the operating system for the world’s best battery energy storage systems” (BESS), has been awarded $25 million through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to accelerate its AC1 BESS product. According to a statement from ARENA on Wednesday, the funding supports a project which will “deploy up…
Wollongong-based energy storage startup Green Gravity has branched out into India, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with TEXMiN, one of India’s four Technology Translation Research Parks. According to a statement from the Australian company on Monday, the signing covers a collaboration exploring the potential of gravitational energy storage systems – Green Gravity’s core business…
By John Griffin, Lancaster University Three scientists have been awarded the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry for discovering a new form of molecular architecture: crystals that contain large cavities. Susumu Kitagawa from Kyoto University, Japan, Richard Robson from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Omar M. Yaghi from the University of California, Berkeley, in the…
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Two years ago, Snowy Hydro announced a reset for its troubled Snowy 2.0 giant pumped hydro project amid cost blowouts. The supposed final cost was A$12 billion. Last week, Snowy Hydro acknowledged this figure was no longer viable after a cost reassessment. I estimate the final cost will be well…
By Niusha Shafiabady, Australian Catholic University and Xiaoying Qi, Australian Catholic University For more than a century, global geopolitics has revolved around oil and gas. Countries with big fossil fuel reserves, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, have amassed significant wealth and foreign influence, helping shape the world order. But the global shift toward renewable…
Grid-scale battery energy storage business Pacific Green has received a planning permit from the state government to build the planned gigawatt-scale Portland Energy Park, Victoria. According to a statement from the company on Monday, the project will be its second battery energy park in Australia, and located on Madeira Packet Road, near both the Portland…
Researchers have developed a new catalyst that Monash University says could bring zinc-air batteries “closer to real-world, grid-scale and transport uses”. According to a statement from the university on Monday, the catalyst is able to make the batteries oxygen reactions “much faster and more efficient”, and “[offer] more power, longer life and lower costs.” The…
Australian researchers have identified “a new kind of carbon-based material” allowing supercapacitors to store as much energy as lead-acid batteries while also performing better than conventional batteries at delivering power quickly. According to a statement from the university on Tuesday, the results are “a major leap forward” for fast, powerful energy storage devices, and are…
Hydrogen storage startup Carbon280 launched its Hydrilyte Technology Pilot Plant in Kwinana, Western Australia, which aims to prove its technology at an industrially-relevant scale. According to a statement from the company on Monday, the pilot is a 100 kilowatt prototype at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. The pilot and a lab onsite are funded via…