Distributed Storage

Universities from South Australia to Queensland are embedding renewable-energy technology in their operations and teaching. Last week, the University of the Sunshine Coast in collaboration with Veolia introduced a cold-water tank — effectively a 7 MW battery — to the range of innovative options for reducing electricity costs and the carbon footprint of large, energy-hungry institutions.

ANZ has extended its collaboration with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, committing to facilitating a further $100 million of finance to help Australian businesses cut energy costs and reduce carbon emissions. Under the scheme, the bank is offering financial discounts for upgrades and new investments in solar PV, energy storage, EVs and other technologies.

A report produced by an AI and automation market research company says an anticipated boom in the European storage market – driven by a desire to reduce carbon emissions – will attract producers as demand outside China tails away.

The Brisbane-based energy storage manufacturer has raised $4.75 million in Series A funding from the Queensland Government Business Development Fund and Australian institutional and family investors.

The grant recipients for the fourth phase of the Next Generation Energy Storage program have been announced. Launched in 2016, the $25 million program is supporting the roll out of up to 36 MW of smart battery storage.

With around 16 battery-based virtual-power-plant projects either in progress or planned across six states, Australia is demonstrating the potential of distributed energy resources to the world. An Australian Clean Energy Summit panel last week caught up on progress and potholes on the road to energy’s new two-way street.

While it has seen growing market acceptance of its zinc-bromine flow battery technology in the past 12 months, Redflow has reported a slowdown in delivery of batteries with cash receipts of only $74,000 received in the FY2019 final quarter.

The analyst has published its latest Energy Storage Outlook report and says large scale deployment will provide the majority of the 1,095 GW/2,850 GWh of battery storage worldwide in 2040, with prices driven down further by grid services demand and EVs.

The program will test the potential of distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar systems, battery storage and controllable load devices, aggregated into virtual power plants (VPPs), to provide scalable energy and network services traditionally performed by large-scale, conventional electricity generators. With registration open, the Australian Energy Market Operator wants VPPs to register to accelerate the shared learning on how to safely and efficiently integrate, operate and regulate these emerging technologies into the National Electricity Market.

After it deployed a record $1.3 billion into the clean energy sector in a 12-month period, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation said it will sharpen its focus on energy storage and other technologies to support the stability of the national grid.