Energy Storage

Western Australian transport and logistics giant Centurion is building a fully integrated off-grid energy system including rooftop solar and on-site battery energy storage to help accelerate its shift to electric vehicles.

Labelled the “most difficult” in the world, Australia’s regulatory environment and grid connection process for new large-scale renewable energy generation and storage has also been lauded as the standard bearer for the global market.

While Australia continues to be a revelatory solar market internationally, it lost its place in the top 10 solar installers globally in 2023, the IEA PVPS team reports. According to Renate Egan, Executive Director for the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, it is the first time in 30 years Australia has dropped off that list. “What’s sad is that the rest of the world is now taking off and investing in solar and we’re falling behind,” she said at Melbourne’s All Energy on Thursday.

Australian company Rux Energy is commercialising technology that uses highly porous nanomaterials to coat tanks for hydrogen storage, claiming significant improvements to the cost, safety and efficiency of what remains a major industry barrier. It has secured funding in the Australian government’s latest round of research grants, and recently opened an office in Essex off the back of industry trials now underway in the UK.

The time for Australia to pursue its renewable energy ‘superpower’ ambitions is now with an audience at All Energy 2024 told the policy settings, regulatory rigor, and support are in place to enable a strong clean energy future.

The federal government has announced it will double the amount of storage projects being sought in the next found of tenders for its Capacity Investment Scheme, upping it from 2 GW / 8 GWh to 4 GW / 16 GWh. The solar and wind tenders have also been increased, moving from 4 GW to 6 GW.

Founder and former CEO of SwitchDin Dr Andrew Mears is launching his new venture, Tesseract ESS, at Melbourne’s All Energy today. The proposition expands on his previous technologies to deliver a ‘storage-as-a-service’ model focused on Australia’s C&I segment, providing battery and solar systems at $0 CAPEX to Australian farmers, manufacturers and other businesses. Pv magazine Australia spoke to Mears ahead of the launch.

Gamesa Electric has signed an agreement with Fortescue for the 50 MW/250 MWh North Star Junction battery energy storage system (BESS) in Western Australia.

Renewables developer X-Elio, owned by Brookfield Renewable, has today announced it will add a 148 MW battery system to its operational Blue Grass solar farm in Queensland, marking its first hybrid solar + storage venture in Australia.

Energy Vault, a Swiss company which initially entered international markets with gravity-based storage technologies before expanding into lithium batteries, has signed a $350 million (USD 234 million) agreement with Australian developer Enervest to deliver a 1 GWh lithium battery for a site in Stoney Creek, NSW.