10 Community Solar Farms In Australia To Use LAVO Hydrogen Fuel Cell

LAVO has developed a hydrogen fuel cell for sub-5MW use. It isn’t cheap, at around $35,000, but it does have at least one buyer. Perhaps the time will come when they can be used as community batteries, or on an apartment building? 

How does it work? “LAVO acts as a solar sponge, integrating with rooftop solar to capture and store renewable energy for use when you need it. It creates hydrogen from water, then stores the hydrogen into LAVO’s patented metal hydride. It generates electricity by converting hydrogen into power and delivers power at a regulated voltage to your home,” LAVO states.

The Commonwealth Bank (Australia’s largest) is partnering with Providence Asset Group (PAG) to fund a portfolio of 10 community-based solar farms in regional Victoria. These solar farms are already operational and produce enough power to support 20,000 homes. They will get some storage support from the LAVO fuel cell.

“Providence Asset Group is developing a further 29 solar projects in New South Wales, bringing the total portfolio to 40 sub 5MW solar farms across regional Victoria and New South Wales. Each solar farm will be fitted with the patented LAVO HEOS (Hydrogen Energy Storage System), a pioneering hydrogen storage solution co-developed with UNSW and manufactured in Australia,” Providence Asset Group writes.

“This is a pioneering Australian technology which has the potential to be an important part of the future energy mix required to meet the needs of a net-zero economy,” CBA’s executive director of natural resources and energy, Neil Fraser, said.

With massive amounts of solar now being produced in Australia, this “solar sponge” will allow its application to spread way beyond daylight hours. What do you do when the sun don’t shine? You use your hydrogen fuel cell.

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