Energy Storage

Vanadium explorers Technology Metals Australia and Australian Vanadium Limited will look to accelerate the development of the critical battery mineral in Western Australia after agreeing to a merger of their adjoining projects in the state’s mid-west.

French renewable energy giant Neoen has been given the green light for another grid-scale battery in Australia with Tasmania’s Northern Midlands Council unanimously approving plans for a 280 MW/560 MWh battery energy storage system to be built in the island state’s mid-north.

The Australian Energy Market Commission has declared regulatory reform is required to maximise the benefits of the “record amounts” of household energy devices including rooftop solar systems and small-scale batteries that are connecting to the power grid.

Australia’s biggest coal miner has inked a major renewable energy deal that will utilise solar, wind and pumped hydro to provide about half the forecasted electricity demand of its central Queensland operations.

One month after formally opening its first operational grid-scale battery at the Torrens Island power station site in South Australia, AGL has confirmed that next month it will begin demolishing the adjacent gas-fired Torrens ‘A’ power plant.

Multiple factors affect the lifespan of residential battery energy storage systems. We look at the lifespans of batteries in the third part of this series.

Brisbane-based flow battery company, Redflow, has inked $4.4 million a deal with the US Department of Defence to deliver a prototype microgrid at a New York state airbase, with up to 1.4 MWh of zinc-bromide battery storage.

The Western Australian government has awarded contracts for its 500 MW / 2,000 MWh big battery in Collie and the 200 MW / 800 MWh extension to the existing Kwinana battery. China’s CATL is set to deliver the battery units for both projects, while Spain’s Power Electronics will supply inverters.

Lithium-ion batteries are generally safe and unlikely to fail, but they can catch fire if damaged, stored, or operated incorrectly. With calls mounting for development of engineering good practice, US-based Firetrace International suggests three steps that battery manufacturers, developers and operators should take into account.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has proposed increasing price caps on the country’s main electricity market. This is meant to allow investors to respond to fill gaps created by ageing coal generation.