As a federal election draws nearer, the ways in which much-needed batteries in Australia’s electricity distribution network are incentivised is becoming highly political. With the rollout of community battery projects supported by the federal government underway, industry insiders are hoping that politicians settle on measures that will make distributed battery adoption mainstream.

Big BESS is booming in Australia, with almost 5 GW of projects under construction last year, according Rystad Energy. While encouraging, the analyst reports that the volume remains insufficient to overcome growing rates of renewable curtailment. “We have around 3 GW operational at the moment, but about half of that is still in commissioning. So you still only have 1.5 GW on the market where the average load is 23 GW,” Rystad Energy’s David Dixon said.

Emissions from steel production each year equal those of a major developed economy. Yet steel is a crucial material to support the energy transition, among its many other applications – making its supply essential. Enter green steel, the production of which interrelates with solar, wind, and green hydrogen in intriguing ways.

The volume of large-scale battery energy storage projects under construction in Australia passed that of solar and wind projects combined in 2023 and the trend has intensified this year, with batteries attracting federal support. As coal-fired power plants are shuttered, developers and suppliers are enjoying a battery bonanza.

Larger wafer and module sizes have had a profound influence on module power output in recent years but standardisation appears to have taken hold, with no further increases evident in module data, according to Molly Morgan, a senior research analyst at Exawatt, which is now part of the CRU Group.

Perovskite PV devices are set to become the next big thing in solar with market analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights predicting 1 GW of production by the end of 2024, rising to 6 GW in 2025. Perovskite tandem devices are at the front of the queue for commercialisation but their characterisation presents technical challenges.

The first installations featuring the Tesla Powerwall 3 are currently being completed in the United States, with the company promoting a fully integrated solar-plus-storage and electric vehicle (EV) residential system, with big backup power capacity. While the first Powerwall created a new market segment, the latest iteration enters a marketplace in oversupply.

Big batteries are blooming in the Australian sun and they will play an increasingly important role as coal plants are switched off and the share of renewables rises in the energy mix.

In the Australian leg of its global strategy, US-based tracker supplier Nextracker will use localy produced steel for a major project.

A new guide is hoping to point Australian households in the direction of the right solar system for their home, today and into the future. Mike Roberts, from the UNSW, helped create the Solar Consumer Guide and smart tools like SunSPOT and explained how they work.