Distributed Storage

Major shopping centre landlord, Vicinity Centres, has teamed up with Enel X to potentially deploy up to 50 MWh of cumulative energy storage capacity. The partnership kicks off with two battery fit outs in Victoria and New South Wales, and follows a $73.2 million (USD 50 million) solar rollout across Vicinity’s shopping centres.

Australian miner Core Lithium has made the transition to lithium producer with 15,000 tonnes of unprocessed ore from its Finniss mine in the Northern Territory now heading to China where it will be converted into materials for the global renewable energy storage and electric vehicle markets.

Before Puerto Rico had a chance to recover from Hurricane Maria, in 2017, it was rocked by earthquakes and then, in September 2022, the island was struck again – this time by Hurricane Fiona. These disasters severely impacted Puerto Rico’s infamously fragile power grid, but have emboldened local communities to take power into their own hands through solar and battery storage, and increasingly in the form of microgrids. Compelled by catastrophic circumstances, Puerto Rico must now push toward energy resilience and in the process may see itself become a model not just for other islands, but mainland grids as well.

Growatt’s new APX HV cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery has a storage capacity of 5 kWh and a nominal voltage of 650 V. It can be scaled up to six battery modules, for a maximum capacity of 30 kWh, or 60 kWh in parallel. It comes with a 10-year warranty.

Shenzhen LiTime Technology’s new lithium iron phosphate battery system has a nominal voltage of 12.8 V and a capacity of 100 Ah. It comes with a five-year warranty and can purportedly operate for more than 4,000 cycles.

The Australian government is taking the next steps to roll out 400 batteries in neighbourhoods across the country as part of the $200 million (USD 134 million) Community Batteries for Household Solar program.

New South Wales network operator Ausgrid has signed an agreement with Simply Energy which will see the Melbourne-based energy retailer operate the electricity distribution company’s three community batteries in the National Energy Market.

A poll of more than 2,000 Australians has found 78% agree the federal government should expand the national rooftop solar subsidy to include household battery storage. The concept has floated around for the last years, most notably in the form of a federal bill tabled by independent MP Helen Haines, but may have an uptick of support amid spiralling energy prices.


A free version of SunSPOT, a tool for tailored guidance on the ideal solar and battery set ups, has now been launched. Developed by APVI and UNSW, the online tool allows users to calculate size, cost and potential savings from household renewable systems and is the only such platform offering this information without a sales motive.

Panasonic claims that its new vehicle-to-home system can increase the self-consumption rate of residential solar and storage capacity to 90%.