Energy Storage

Energy Vault has connected its 25 MW/100 MWh EVx gravity-energy storage system (GESS) in China. Once provincial and state approvals are obtained to start operating, it will become the world’s first commercial, utility-scale, non-pumped hydro GESS. Meanwhile, its partners China Tianying (CNTY) and Atlas Renewable Energy have begun construction on three grid-scale GESS in China.

Energizer Solar, the licensee for US battery giant Energizer, has selected Australia as the first market to launch its renewable home ‘ecosystem.’ Including new hybrid inverters, a hybrid battery, solar panels, and soon an EV charger, the product suite has been certified and is landing on Australian shores “as we speak,” Gavin Owen, Energizer Solar’s Head of APAC Sales, told pv magazine Australia.

New South Wales has committed to reform the planning approvals process for renewable energy developments amid criticism that the current process isn’t fit for purpose and is slowing the state’s transition from coal-dominated generation to a renewables-dominated grid.

The Northern Territory has emerged as the national leader in solar battery adoption with more than 30% of homes and businesses with rooftop solar systems having now installed a battery.

Investigators from Fire and Rescue New South Wales have determined a compromised lithium-ion battery was the cause of a housefire north of Sydney last week where two people died.

The first of energy storage solutions specialist Chelion’s new iHome high-voltage residential battery storage systems are now being rolled out in Australia.

The Clean Energy Council (CEC) has called for the federal government to introduce a subsidy program to support residential battery uptake. The CEC says a so-called Home Battery Saver Program would be “the missing piece of the [policy] puzzle.”

ACEN Australia and Marubeni Asian Power Singapore have struck a deal to jointly develop a 200 MW / 400 MWh battery energy storage system alongside ACEN’s multi-stage 720 MW New England solar project being constructed in regional New South Wales.

Queensland-based battery company Redflow has secured up to $1.12 million in government funding to support the development of a large-scale zinc-bromine flow battery prototype and to examine the potential to establish a large-scale battery manufacturing facility in the state.

Australia will invest $2 billion into Southeast Asia green energy and infrastructure development as part of a broader economic strategy that estimates the region’s electricity generation needs by 2050 to be 454 GW.