Utility Scale Storage

“Substantial” profits available in the recently introduced Very Fast Frequency Control Ancillary Services markets will lead to a surge in battery involvement according to new data provided by energy market consultancy and research group Cornwall Insight Australia.

Epic Energy has added a large-scale battery energy storage project to its growing portfolio of renewable energy infrastructure assets with the 100 MW / 200 MWh facility to sit alongside the company’s two solar farms at Mannum in South Australia.

More than 200 entries from across 39 countries made up the field for the pv magazine Awards 2023 and there was genuine innovation on display in all categories. Significant demands have been placed on the solar and energy storage industries in 2023, but that hasn’t stopped the sector from making great leaps in performance. The winners of the pv magazine Awards 2023 serve as shining examples of what can be achieved through a continuous improvement philosophy.

The latest estimates of electricity generation costs in Australia reveal that solar and wind power remain the cheapest form of energy, even after the expense of integrating them into the grid is factored in.

Australian renewable energy company Frontier Energy has completed its acquisition of Canadian firm Waroona Energy. The companies own neighbouring large-scale solar projects in Western Australia’s southwest and intend to join forces to create the state’s largest vertically integrated renewable energy hub.

A group of researchers in China has developed an energy management system for modular gravity storage. Compared to single block gravity storage, the modular counterpart offers more flexibility in output power, ease of mass production of related equipment and better flexibility in the selection of weights.

The New South Wales government has formalised its decision to double the size of Australia’s first coordinated renewable energy zone, boosting its capacity to 6 GW of solar, wind and storage in a move designed to better cater for the state’s future energy as it transitions from coal and gas to a renewables-based grid.

Australian battery and renewable energy developer Akaysha Energy continues to expand its energy storage portfolio, announcing that it has reached a final investment decision on a 205 MW / 410 MWh battery being developed in southeast Queensland.

Ark Energy’s 275 MW/2,200 MWh lithium-iron phosphate battery to be built in northern New South Wales has been announced as one of the successful projects in the third tender conducted under the state government’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap. The Richmond Valley Battery Energy Storage System will likely be the biggest eight-hour lithium battery in the world when it is completed.

Australia’s largest battery with grid-forming inverter capabilities is set to go ahead with energy major AGL announcing a final investment decision on a 500 MW, two-hour duration battery being developed in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.