Utility Scale Storage

Increased demand and continual outages at gas and coal power plants in Queensland have seen a rise in the occurrence of extreme price spikes. The timing of these spikes, typically at peak hours between 5pm and 8pm, are seeing solar revenues soar just as the sun is setting.

To encourage industry to consider the battery mineral opportunities currently sitting in neglected heaps around the country, Geoscience Australia and its partners are developing an Atlas of Australian Mine Waste. The public database hopes to highlight the opportunity in reprocessing mining waste for new markets.

The global battery energy storage market will grow to US$10.84 billion (AU$14.54 billion) in 2026, with around two-thirds of the demand concentrated in the Asia Pacific region.

US researchers have proposed the use of hydraulically fractured oil and gas wells to store renewable energy via compressed natural gas, with the levelised cost of storage potentially coming in at US$70/MWh and US$270/MWh. They said wells could also be used to store other renewable gases such as carbon dioxide or hydrogen in the future.

Sydney company CST Composites is seeking to establish Australia’s first hydrogen vessel manufacturing facility, looking to secure its position in the rapidly growing industry through a joint venture with a US-based hydrogen storage tank manufacturer.

The CSIRO will invest $50 million in four new programs to drive critical breakthroughs in electric vehicle batteries and creating storage solution which could “mimic pumped hydro.”

Bosch’s new solid oxide fuel cell prototype has an electrical efficiency of more than 60% and an overall efficiency above 85%. It also has a targeted power output of 10 kW and can produce up to 3 kW of thermal energy.

In September 2021, not long after a fire at the Victorian Big Battery made international headlines, Neoen’s original “Big Battery” – the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia – was sued by the Australian Energy Regulator for failing to provide all of the frequency control ancillary services it had agreed to offer. The case is now before Australia’s Federal Court, where the judgement could set an important precedent for network operations in Australia, as well as the transition to large-scale batteries.

Mineral Resources Limited along with its joint venture partners is set to double the spodumene output of its Mount Marion Lithium mine over the course of 2022 in response to enormous lithium price due to electric vehicle demand.

Australian deployment of battery storage remained steady in 2021, according to market research firm SunWiz, bringing cumulative installations to 1,089MWh.