Thread: World's biggest battery to be built at KURRI KURRI.

The industrialized, developed, civilised(?) world is spending huge amounts of money to develop fusion power, Australia is relying on the energizer bunny. Now there's a subsidy to encourage us to install solar which as far as I know all comes from overseas.
Would it be possible to use said subsidy to encourage Australia to manufacture solar panels?

Just saying!

Originally Posted by jspyle

Would it be possible to use said subsidy to encourage Australia to manufacture solar panels?

Just saying!

There are at least 3 companies manufacturing solar panels in Australia.

I know very little more than that, like whether they are Australian owned companies or what ever.

Someone else might be able to shine some light on these companies.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

There are at least 3 companies manufacturing solar panels in Australia.

I know very little more than that, like whether they are Australian owned companies or what ever.

Someone else might be able to shine some light on these companies.

I believe there is only Tindo, who claim to be Australia's only solar panel manufacturer, whom buy there pv cells from Korea from memory, and other parts from china.

Thanks Tim, may I call you Tim, and Vern, may I call you Vern, as usual my comments and research are inversely proportional to my cab sav intake.

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Where did anyone say that it was generating electricity?

The role of the batteries isn't to power an entire State, it's to smooth out generation and demand.

FYI, there's some pretty serious people behind that battery - ex-AEMO, ex- Macquarie Bank - and I'd presume that they know what they're doing.

Serious indeed! But...remember, at Macbank 'everything' has a price. No doubt they've done their homework and estimated the gift horse "social" $$$ on offer from the Federal govt.., and are betting on massive capital gains when the time is "right"... there's no altruism for 'saving the planet' in this play. It's a business opportunity pure and simple....
China and India for example are bringing on stream new High Efficiency-Low Emission coal fired power generation equivalent to Australia's total coal fired output every 6 months! The most widely used process for refining Lithium is one of the most toxic -emission/byproduct processes in all industry. China has a monopoly on lithium processing and is now struggling to contain the damage from hitherto uncontrolled lithium processing... this story has a long way to run yet ...
A piece of trivia: Kg for Kg the energy output of real-time power availability from burning coal in a high efficient/low emission process is 25 times greater than 1 kg of lithium battery storage....

How steel may kick its coal habit
Steelmakers worldwide are facing mounting pressure from government regulators and consumers to decarbonize operations. Doing so is essential to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and staving off most of the worst effects of climate change, experts say. In recent months, the world’s three top producers—Europe’s ArcelorMittal, China’s Baowu Steel, and Japan’s Nippon Steel—committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, echoing targets set in their home countries.
But in order to curb steel’s carbon emissions, the sector will have to transform how the material is traditionally made.

Outside Boston, in the industrial suburb of Woburn, one company is working to replace coal with electrons. Boston Metal, an outfit spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, uses electric currents to heat iron ore into a bright orange-white liquid, which converts into metal and cools as gray steel blocks. The process doesn’t create greenhouse gas emissions, and when powered with renewable electricity, can be completely emissions-free.




How Steel Might Finally Kick Its Coal Habit | WIRED

It will be great if the pilot plant works.

Already Direct Reduction steel making has been in existence for many years which is a "half way House" but AFAIR it depends on significant amounts of scrap steel to be included in the second process where the sponge iron is converted to steel.
BHP were also involved in building a Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant in the Pilbara which was the design of the CSIRO , but it didn't work on a large scale.
Regards PhilipA

$2.4b Port Hedland BHP plant to be demolished - ABC News

Ouch!

Interestingly as I went past the Cullerin range wind farm over the weekend a significant number of turbines on both sides of the road were shut down. A big battery would at least make more use of the generation capability that is wasted in times of low demand.

Regards,
Tote