Collie Renewable Battery Up and Running Ahead of Schedule

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THE CLEAN ENERGY CAFÉ: Renewable energy company Neoen provided the renewable energy space a big jump on the plans of Federal opposition Leader Peter Dutton this week with the big green button pressed at the company’s Collie Battery Stage 1 in Western Australia.

Neoen has taken less than 18 months to build and start operating its 219 MW / 877 MWh Collie Battery Stage 1, which is located near the town of Collie, one of Mr Dutton’s chosen nuclear power plant site.

Constructed on the country of the Wilman people of the Bibbulmun nation, in the South West region of WA the Collie Battery Stage 1 is the largest battery in WA to date.

It is the first Neoen asset to connect into South-West Interconnected System (SWIS) and, in collaboration with Tesla, UGL and network service provider Western Power, it was delivered ahead of schedule.

“We are extremely proud to have delivered the largest battery in Western Australia in record time,” Neoen Australia CEO Jean-Christophe Cheylus said at the launch.

“I would like to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly to make this happen: Western Power, Tesla and UGL as well as AEMO and the Western Australian Government.

“We are delighted to be contributing a storage project of this scale and duration. With over 2 GW of projects in our pipeline in WA, we are committed to continuing to play our part in the State’s energy transition.”

On 1st October, Collie Battery Stage 1 began delivering its 197 MW / 4-hour grid capacity service to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) as part of a ‘Non-Co-optimised Essential System Services’ (NCESS) contract that is set to run for a period of two years.

The battery provides 197 MW of storage capacity for 4 hours, charging during the day and then discharging across the evening peak.

This service is designed to address the risks AEMO identified relating to the phased retirement of WA Government owned coal-fired power plants and increasingly high penetration of rooftop solar in Western Australia.

The battery is Neoen’s first major project in WA and its first 4-hour long duration battery globally. Collie Battery Stage 2 (341 MW / 1,363 MWh), which is currently under construction, was awarded a similar 300 MW / 4-hour NCESS contract by AEMO in April 2024.

Altogether, the Collie Battery (560 MW / 2,240 MWh) will have the ability to charge and discharge 20 per cent of average demand in the SWIS.

Neoen stated it meets its strategy of deepening its investment in storage through extended duration, enabling it to unlock greater value as long duration storage becomes increasingly vital to electricity networks transition to higher penetrations of renewable energy.

Neoen has other Australian operating batteries and its storage portfolio in operation or under construction in the country currently sits at 1,925 MW / 4,709 MWh.

This includes the 300 MW / 450 MWh Victorian Big Battery in Geelong and the 150 MW / 193.5 MWh Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, both in operation, as well as several batteries currently under construction: 238.5 MW / 477 MWh Blyth Battery in South Australia, two stages of Western Downs Battery in Queensland (both sized at 270 MW / 540 MWh) and the 100 MW / 200 MWh Capital Battery in the Australian Capital Territory.

 

 

MTM Critical Metals Improves High Multi-Metal Recovery from E-Waste to Include Palladium and Tin

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THE CLEAN ENERGY CAFE: MTM Critical Metals (ASX: MTM) has added to the suite of metals able to be extracted from e-waste by the company’s Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology.

MTM Critical Metals has now successfully recovered tin and palladium from e-waste, building on its previously efforts of high recovery of gold, silver and copper.

The company highlighted that the recovery of the further elements of tin and palladium was achieved without the use of toxic acids.

He technology recovered approximately 86 per cent of the tin and 82 per cent of palladium content from printed circuit boards (PCBs), a common component of electronic waste (e-waste).

MTM considers the advancement enhances the commercial potential of FJH as an environmentally friendly solution for recycling metals from discarded electronics.

The recovered metals are among the most valuable components in e-waste, substantially increasing the economic potential of recycling it through FJH technology.

“We are thrilled by the progress made in demonstrating the versatility of Flash Joule Heating for e-waste recycling,” MTM CEO Michael Walshe said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The successful recovery of tin and palladium, alongside gold, silver, and copper, highlights the significant potential of FJH as an efficient recycling solution for printed circuit boards.

“With e-waste representing a vast untapped ‘urban mine,’ our technology offers a sustainable approach without the environmental burden of traditional mining or hazardous processing.

“We are excited to advance discussions with industry partners as we continue our journey towards commercialisation.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

MTM Critical Metals Achieves High Gold Recovery from E-Waste using FJH Technology

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THE CLEAN ENERGY CAFE: MTM Critical Metals (ASX: MTM) reported gold recovery success from electronic waste (e-waste) during initial tests of the company’s proprietary Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology.

MTM Critical Metals believes the high recovery gold yields achieved by the testing demonstrates the technology’s potential to change the status quo for the recycling industry.

The company’s proof-of-concept stage testing recovered up to 70 per cent of the contained gold within e-waste without the use of toxic acids.

The FJH process works by ‘flash’ heating e-waste in a chlorine gas atmosphere, vaporizing the target metals like gold for efficient separation and collection via metal chlorides.

The process is highly scalable and environmentally friendly, offering a sustainable and energy-efficient alternative to traditional methods of recovering metals from e-waste such as smelting and chemical leaching, which are considered energy-intensive, environmentally harmful, and economically inefficient.

“FJH has proven to be an efficient and sustainable solution for recovering gold from low-grade e-waste, with future tests to focus on higher metal content material as it becomes available,” MTM chief executive officer Michael Walshe said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“As global e-waste levels rise and the demand for greener metal production increases, particularly in the face of an acid shortage, FJH presents a cleaner and more efficient alternative to traditional methods.

“This technology holds the potential to unlock significant economic value through environmentally responsible metal extraction, delivering lasting benefits for shareholders, the industry, and the environment.”

E-waste is one of the fastest-growing components of solid waste with over 60 million tonnes produced annually, of which only about 20 per cent is currently recycled.

This is a readily available source of precious and critical metals like gold, copper, and palladium that is valued at over US$70 billion in potential recoverable content.

It also presents a great opportunity for material reclamation that reduces carbon emissions and minimises toxic by-products.

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

 

Lithium Australia Heralds National Battery Stewardship Scheme

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THE CLEAN ENERGY CAFE: Lithium Australia (ASX: LIT) has its sights on providing an ethical and sustainable supply of energy metals to the battery industry.

The company believes that by doing so it is creating a circular battery economy, thereby contributing to national, and global, energy security.

A major factor in Lithium Australia’s strategy is the recycling of old lithium-ion batteries to new.

The company is not alone in its objective with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently highlighting its position on the environmental harm caused by disposing of batteries to landfill, which along with the cost of recycling batteries, is not currently reflected in their price.

As popular and mainstream household recycling has become there is currently little incentive – or instruction – for the disposal of batteries around Australia.

This is rapidly becoming an issue of some importance, for if you stop to think about the number of batteries being used in your home at this given moment, do you also stop to think about where they go when they die?

At present, responsibility for managing disposal of batteries is on the heads of local governments, meaning there is a lack of commercial incentives for Australian businesses to not only promote, but to more importantly, participate in the environmentally responsible disposal of end-of-life (EOL) batteries.

With all this is in mind, the ACCC has authorised the Battery Stewardship Council (BSC) to implement a national stewardship scheme for all types of EOL batteries, apart from lead-acid batteries and those already captured by existing schemes.

The rationale behind the scheme is to unite battery supply chain companies in efforts to greatly reduce the volume of toxic EOL batteries being disposed of as waste to landfill, and to maximise resource recovery by increasing collection and recycling rates and developing a domestic battery reprocessing capacity.

The levy and rebate system proposed under the scheme aspires to better align the price of batteries with the cost of their responsible disposal while increasing the incentive for businesses to facilitate their recycling.

The scheme will operate by imposing an annual levy, that will be reviewed annually and will be passed on through the supply chain to consumers.

This fee will be initially be set at four cents per equivalent battery unit (EBU) and will apply to companies that import more than 1,000 EBU annually.

It is estimated that the levy will raise $22 million annually.

Lithium Australia subsidiary company, Envirostream Australia is Australia’s only mixed battery recycler.

Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said this paced the subsidiary in good stead to take advantage of the benefits of the scheme.

“The levy on batteries will commoditise EOL batteries, currently considered waste material, and the value created will be a strong incentive to divert them from landfill,” Griffin said.

“We are anticipating a significant increase in feed material for Envirostream, and the more it gets the greater the benefit for the environment.

“The scheme should encourage more sustainable use of critical materials used in the manufacture of batteries, reducing reliance on primary production which, in some cases, relies on child labour and supply from conflict zones.”

Envirostream Australia is a mixed battery recycling company that was established in 2017 to develop safe and innovative management solutions for battery recycling, which it identified as an emerging challenge for the Australian waste industry.

In 2019 the CSIRO forecast the amount of discarded lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in Australia will grow from 3,300 tonnes recorded in 2016 to between 100,000 and 188,000 tonnes by 2036.

Lithium Australia is investing in the logistical infrastructure necessary to recycle LIBs through a partnership with Envirostream Australia.

The company has now lodged two Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications relating to LIB recycling processes.

The first of these focuses on extraction of cathode materials for which Lithium Australia filed a PCT application entitled ‘Process for recovering values from batteries’ – that relates to processes for the recovery of electrode materials from LIBs (for example, electrode material comprising a cathode material and/or an anode material, such as a mixed metal dust), as well as recovery of the electrolyte.

The second covers the extraction of critical battery metals.

Entitled ‘Process for recovering metal values from process liquors’ it relates to processes for the selective recovery of mixed metal sulphates (for example, a mixed cobalt-nickel sulphate) from a metal sulphate process liquor.

“With our recent successful capital raising, we’re in a strong position to accelerate commercialisation of the technologies discussed here,” Adrian Griffin said in nteh company’s ASX announcement.

“Indeed, the first of those has already been implemented on a commercial scale at our Melbourne processing plant.

“These technical advances are timely, in that they coincide with the introduction of a national battery stewardship scheme designed to divert batteries from landfill, thereby increasing the quantities of spent batteries available for recycling.”

 

Email: info@lithium-au.com

 

Web: www.lithium-au.com