An award-winning Australian solar-powered “water battery” has been lauded as a success with the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) revealing the system generated more than 3 GWh of electricity in its first 12 months of operation.
The thermal energy storage tank, located at USC’s main campus on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, is powered by a 2.1 MW solar PV system which produces enough energy to cool 4.5 megalitres of water, effectively acting as an 8 MW battery. The cooled water is stored and used for air conditioning, which is currently the single biggest user of electricity at the campus.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/12/30/water-battery-a-winner-for-australian-university/
Farming is energy intensive and gas, diesel & electricity are not cheap or necessarily emission friendly. But the farming community abounds with innovative approaches to improve energy productivity, reduce costs and emissions. So the establishment of a new Community of Practice, called Energy Smart Farming, provides a way for farmers, service providers, advisors, researchers & community advocates to share energy knowledge, research & solutions. https://extensionaus.com.au/energysmartfarming/
ZeroAvia is a developer of zero-emission powertrain for
commercial air travel. In September they
made their first test flight in Cranfield in the UK using a 6-seater
hydrogen-fueled aircraft for taxiing, taking off, circling and landing. ZeroAvia’s first commercial product will be the
powertrain for 20-seater planes and aims to demonstrate that it can fly a
plane over 800km with as many as 20 seats by 2023. They want to scale up to 1,600km with over 100 seats by 2030.
Aviation is a challenging industry to decarbonise and will
increasingly contribute to unwanted carbon emissions.
Think about the warm water in your shower, dishwasher, washing machine and more. All that heat is wasted as it goes down your drain. It is even worse in hotels or industrial applications like dairies, food manufacturing and breweries. So why not intercept the warm/hot water as it exits the building and before it goes into the sewers? Via a holding tank with a heat pump, you can then extract the heat and re-direct it to where it is needed rather than wasting it - saving money and GHGs .
