Energy Storage

Of the myriad tensions upon the energy transition to renewables it is perhaps the ability of solar and energy storage to be distributed among the people that has threatened the powers that be most overtly. And so, in NSW’s northwest where the federal government has pushed through Santos’s Narrabri coal seam gas project, perhaps it is community green energy non-profit Geni.Energy that is best able to show just how unnecessary such a project is.

UK-based Social Energy launched in Australia with the help of shareholder Shane Warne back in 2019. Now the smart energy firm is being backed with a significant investment from US-based alternative investment fund manager CarVal Investors in order for the company to rapidly grow Down Under.

In what is believed to be a Victorian first, CitiPower and Yarra Energy Foundation will parter to create a community battery network in the Melbourne CBD and inner-city suburbs.

In November last year, Cornwall Insight Australia estimated Australia had 7 GW of battery storage projects in the pipeline. Since then, massive amounts of storage capacity have been added.

Edge-of-grid communities are under increasing threat of debilitating power outages due to disasters driven by climate change. A new report quantifies the benefits of transitioning some 244 communities to microgrids or individual power systems.

The LAVO 40 kWh battery incorporates an electrolyser, groundbreaking UNSW materials science, and Australian fuel-cell technology, in a slick unit that will be market ready in June this year. Gowing Bros last week became an equity investor and LAVO’s first major customer.

Housing developers around Australia are catching on to the allure of incorporating solar in buildings from the get go. This weekend the Queensland Government announced plans for two new state-sponsored solar-powered residential developments to light the way for more private companies to install rooftop PV and batteries as a matter of course.

Australian researchers have analysed different ways to improve the efficiency of PV-powered water electrolysis for hydrogen generation. They include the use of magnetic fields, light energy, ultrasonic fields, and pulsating electric fields. Energy costs remain prohibitive, but molecular movement and the redistribution of molecules in water during electrolysis could open a path to viability.

The Australian Capital Territory Government continues its charge towards delivering big battery storage for Canberra’s energy grid with $100 million dedicated to provide at least 250 MW of large-scale battery storage.

Hydro Tasmania and buyers Macquarie Group and ERM Power have signed a ‘Virtual Storage’ deal which will see the pumped-hydro company sell the rights to its highest priced periods of ‘discharge’ and buying a fixed MW block of low-priced ‘charge’. The innovative contract is the product of the ARENA-funded Renewable Energy Hub.