U.S. Department of Energy in Partnership with Israel Announces $4 Million for Clean Technologies
Here are some significant cleantech announcements of the day from around the world:
VRB Energy, a clean technology company, announced a framework agreement for a 100 MW solar and 100 MW/500 MWh vanadium flow battery integrated power project at Xiangyang in Hubei Province of China. The agreement includes constructing the first 50 MW per annum of a new 1,000 MW per annum VRB-ESS “Gigafactory” manufacturing facility and a vanadium flow battery energy research and development (R&D) institute. VRB Energy’s 100 MW project in Hubei is among a growing list of growing flow battery projects being prioritized in China as part of its national energy storage policy.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with Israel’s Ministry of Energy and the Israel Innovation Authority, announced $4 million in funding for clean energy technologies. The funding is under the Binational Industrial Research & Development Energy program. The program promotes U.S.-Israel partnerships in bringing renewable and energy efficiency technologies to market. BIRD Energy supports research and development that benefits both the United States and Israel, focusing on commercializing sustainable energy technologies.
Solarvest Holdings Berhad, the Malaysian solar system specialist, has been shortlisted as one of the successful bidders in the LSS@Mentari program to provide a cumulative capacity of 50 MW of solar-power via three large-scale solar farms. Among the three shortlisted bids, the largest solar farm has a capacity of 25 MW which will be based in Manjung, Perak. This will be followed by a 13 MW solar farm in Kuala Selangor and another 12 MW solar farm in Manjung, Perak. The solar projects are expected to be operational by the end of 2022. The solar plants are expected to be operational by the end of 2022.
Powering Australian Renewables (PowAR) and Mercury NZ Limited have entered into an agreement to acquire Tilt Renewables for an all-cash transaction of NZ$2.9 billion (~$2.08 billion) per the New Zealand Companies Act 1993. The Australian power company AGL Energy has a 20% interest in PowAR and will contribute $A341 (~$264.1 million) to fund its portion of PowAR’s acquisition of Tilt’s Australian business. For AGL, the proposed PowAR acquisition of Tilt will complement AGL’s participation in the PowAR platform, which, on implementation of the program, will be the largest owner of wind and solar energy generation in Australia.
GameChange Solar, a leading solar system manufacturer, said that it has deployed over 230,000 solar trackers. Each solar tracker is a robotic system that tracks an average of 90 solar modules throughout the day to follow the sun and interact with weather patterns to optimize energy harvest for solar power project owners. The robotic system uses advanced wireless mesh networks and learning algorithms to optimize each solar power project’s needs to maximize power production.
www.mercomindia.com
