Distributed Storage

Retailer Powershop Australia is partnering with Reposit Power to offer a customers with rooftop PV and battery storage a quarterly payment plan in exchange for access to customers’ batteries. The Virtual Power Plant program will be called Grid Impact and Powershop says it will help stabilise the electricity network.

Despite a lackluster Q4, GTM Research predicts that the U.S. energy storage market is going to boom in 2018, driven by both policy support and falling prices.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is seeking industry input into the setting up of a new register for small-scale battery storage and solar systems. The goal of the registry is to provide the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and network operators more insight into consumer demand.

The latest arrival to the Australian battery storage market will now have the backing of a major German utility. German storage provider Senec has been acquired by EnBW, one of Germany’s ‘big three’ utilities.

In yet another renewable energy related election commitment, South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill has pledged to offer loans to 10,000 households to install rooftop solar and battery storage, which will be made available interest-free for the first seven years.

Australia is on the cusp of a residential battery storage boom. The Climate Council published the forecast last week in its Fully Charged: Renewables and Storage Powering Australia report. BNEF confirms with pv magazine Australia that as a result of the rapid growth, Australia is alongside Germany as the fastest growing market for residential battery storage.

German battery and solar energy company sonnen will move its Australian headquarters from Sydney to Adelaide where it will also establish a manufacturing hub.

Despite hitting a record 1.17 GW of new grid-scale storage capacity in 2017, growth was a mere 4.6% on 2016 having surged 61% the year prior. Industry’s reliance on policy support means foundations for growth remain uneven, report finds. Average costs, however, fell by 24% last year.

Gavin Merchant from SolarEdge Australia and New Zealand speaks to pv magazine Australia about the growing acceptance of module-level power electronics across all solar market segments. The rise of storage is also bringing new opportunities.

The proposed 50,000 home virtual power plant launched by the South Australian state government, in partnership with Tesla, is a big deal. But it does beg a number of questions as to how it will be realized and what the implications of the project could be.