Energy Storage

A steady progression of targets, plans and policy adjustments come together in the ‘NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap’ as the Berejiklian Government strives to get ahead of the retirement of coal-fired generators — and fire up the state economy!

The Northern Territory is advancing projects that will help it achieve 50% penetration of renewables into its energy supply by 2030. First up, the procurement of a 30 MW battery to boost reliability of the Darwin-Katherine grid.

Australian electricity wires are awash with sunshine, such that network operators have threatened to up the drawbridge on further rooftop connections, while limiting rooftop PV exports to the grid. But data streams hold the key to unlocking surprising existing capacity, stabilising voltage, and living the Aussie dream.

An International Energy Agency report led up by Rolf Frischknecht from Treeze in Switzerland and under the joint project management of the University of New South Wales’ José Bilbao has measured the lifecycle emissions of both residential solar PV with battery storage and gas-generated grid electricity. The results are not particularly surprising, only the Morrison Government’s ongoing obduracy is.

Victoria will be home to one of the world’s largest lithium-ion batteries with the 300 MW / 450 MWh Victoria Big Battery to be constructed on the outskirts of Geelong.

Residential battery manufacturer Sonnen has unveiled a new power tariff program which signals a major shift for the Australian market.

Australian mining and resource technology company TNG Limited has set up a subsidiary, TNG Energy, to run point on the advancement of its green sector ambitions through the use of its high-purity vanadium pentoxide deposit to make vanadium redox flow batteries for off-grid solutions.

Researchers have modeled how the combination of a virtual oscillator control mechanism and a cascaded sliding mode control can help regulate voltage and frequency in a distributed-solar microgrid.

230 Northern Territory businesses have already received their vouchers for Australia’s most generous energy storage subsidity, the NT’s Home and Business Battery Scheme. The scheme, which is still open for applications until November 30, offers grants of $6,00 to homeowners and business owners to install solar and battery storage, or complement an existing solar system with a battery.

South African scientists have used a PV system to keep tomatoes in cold storage. They linked an air-cooling system and evaporative cooling tech to a 3.5 kW array and 12 batteries and tested it for 28 days in September.