Energy Storage

Australia’s first commercial-scale manufacturing plant for grid-scale, long-duration batteries being built by Energy Storage Industries Asia Pacific has received a $65 million boost through Queensland government and private investment.

Renewables developers Ratch Australia and Terrain Solar have revealed plans for a slimmed down 60 MW solar farm and 40 MW / 80 MWh battery energy storage project to be built in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

Flexbase plans to build a 500 MW redox flow battery energy storage project in Switzerland in early 2025.

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has tapped United States-headquartered energy equipment manufacturer GE Vernova to deliver an integrated battery energy storage system solution for the 250 MW / 1,000 MWh second stage of its Supernode project being developed in southeast Queensland.

Chinese solar giant Trina Solar has unveiled plans for a 660 MW / 2,640 MWh battery energy storage facility in Western Australia that it says will enhance grid stability and support the state’s increasing renewable energy demands.

The International Energy Agency’s latest report warns that failing to support integration at the point of deployment could jeopardise up to 15% of solar and wind projects by 2030. This shortfall would reduce their combined share of the global electricity mix by 5%.

It took eight years of field measurements for researchers at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany to estimate the usable capacity of home battery energy storage systems and develop a dataset covering 106 system years and 14 billion datapoints. Their key finding was that home battery systems lose about two to three percentage points of usable capacity per year on average, meaning good news for the industry as most warranties in the market can be met with the implementation of capacity reserves.

South Australia Flinders University researchers, in collaboration with Griffith University, have published findings into aqueous zinc-ion batteries studies, as a more sustainable energy storage technology alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

Queensland Hydro has announced more than $190 million in work packages linked to the construction of the 2 GW / 48 GWh Borumba pumped hydro energy storage project being developed near Gympie in the state’s southeast.

Genex Power has struck an offtake agreement with Queensland government-owned energy giant Stanwell Corporation that will underpin the development of the 775 MW first stage of the Bulli Creek solar and battery project planned for the state’s southeast.