CQUniversity and Sunshine Hydro have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop and trial a novel piece of technology aimed at boosting Queensland’s decarbonisation.
Developed by Sunshine Hydro, Superhybrid technology will live model a renewable energy ecosystem including pumped hydro, electrolysers, wind and solar energy. The MoU will allow CQUniversity and Sunshine Hydro to develop a mini Superhybrid to provide a research testbed that allows for the development of a real-world Superhybrid™ that tracks power into the grid among other capabilities.
CQUniversity Centre for Hydrogen and Renewable Energy (CHRE) Director, Paul Hodgson, said, “This partnership will assist in establishing deeper training capability for the technology, operation, and maintenance of flow batteries, electrolysers, hydrogen productions and dispensing, and methanol production facilities.
“In doing so, it allows us to enhance skills development in the region through up-skilling and indeed cross-skilling workers in the energy and mining sectors as it will open doors to other projects, for example, green fuels.
“The potential for the CQU mini Superhybrid as a proof-of-concept to supply hydrogen as feedstock to a possible green fuels plant provides further opportunities for job creation, new skills and a path to enable Gladstone to become a future sustainable green fuels hub.”
As part of the MoU, CQUniversity and Sunshine Hydro have committed to co-funding two research higher degree scholarships through the Elevate Scholarship Program.
Sunshine Hydro CEO, Rick McElhinney, said, “The learnings that will come out of this will be world-leading and followed globally, informing how we build the future of long duration storage and renewable energy. Coursework will be developed based on it and students from all over the world will come to Gladstone based on this edge.”
Mr McElhinney said that this would also provide a model that is financially viable to support Long Duration Energy Storage in the market and accelerate the road map to turning the Port of Gladstone and other Australian locations into green fuel hubs.
Featured image: (L–R): Gladstone Mayor, Matt Burnett, CQUniversity Vice-Chancellor and President Professor, Nick Klomp, Sunshine Hydro Head of Projects, Dan Raymond, and Sunshine Hydro CEO, Rick McElhinney at the signing of the MoU. Image credit: CQUniversity.
