Energy Storage

The Australian Energy Market Commission has unveiled new rules designed to better integrate both small and large-scale batteries into the National Electricity Market and provide financial rewards for market participants who can respond at lightning-quick speeds to provide stability when the grid is under stress.

Electricity network owner Spark Investment has announced plans to develop a 2.5 GW renewable energy hub in New South Wales as it continues to move beyond owning regulated network infrastructure towards renewable energy generation assets.

The generator can be combined with batteries, solar panels, or small wind turbines. It is based on a proton exchange membrane fuel cell technology and is claimed to have a minimum lifetime of 5,000 working hours.

The Australian National University today opened its Distributed Energy Resources Lab, dedicated to researching and testing technologies including batteries, solar panels and electric vehicles which it says will “underpin the energy grids of the future”.


Adelaide-based module maker Tindo Solar has notched a win for the Australian manufacturing sector, delivering the panels for a $2.4 million solar PV and battery energy storage program rolled out by the Queensland government.

Smart Power India (SPI), a subsidiary of US-based impact investor Rockefeller Foundation, has supported the setting up of more than 300 renewable energy mini-grids cumulating to 9.2 MW of capacity across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, the largest such cluster in India. Jaideep Mukherjee, chief executive officer at SPI, spoke to pv magazine about the role of mini-grids in rural upliftment and the barriers to overcome.

The small town of Yackandandah in northeast Victoria is one step closer to being powered by 100% renewable energy with the state’s first behind-the-meter, community-owned solar PV and battery energy storage system the latest addition to its community’s energy generation strategy.

AGL Energy will shut down the first of four gas-fired 200 MW units at its Torrens Island ‘B’ Power Station in South Australia within three months as it looks to navigate “challenging” market conditions prompted by the ongoing penetration of renewables into the energy grid.

Chinese technology giant Huawei has introduced its series of modular off-grid systems primarily targeting Australia’s agricultural sector, Huawei’s Solution Director, Kenneth Loh, told pv magazine Australia.

Global infrastructure developer AECOM has run analysis on every petroleum fuel refinery and storage & import terminal in Australia and New Zealand as a novel means of locating sites well suited to future renewable development and hydrogen industries. “Some sites that were really suited to a wide range of end uses and those were our so-called ‘unicorn sites,’” AECOM’s Craig Bearsley told pv magazine Australia.