Utility Scale Storage

Energy utility AGL has reaffirmed its ambition to have 850 MW of new large-scale battery storage in its portfolio by the end of 2024 after announcing falling power prices and an outage at the coal-fired Liddell Power Station in New South Wales had wiped out more than a quarter of its half-yearly profit.

The highly successful Western Australian community battery rollout continues with the expansion of the PowerBank trial, run by the state’s biggest generator and retailer Synergy in conjunction with state-owned network operator Western Power.

At present, China accounts for almost 75% of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and this share is set to increase through the short term with its build-out of new facilities. And although the US and Europe are enacting policies to encourage domestic battery production, there has been a distinct lack of support for investment in the supply and refining of the raw materials to achieve this. In China, the opposite holds true. 

Chinese inverter maker Sungrow has switched on a 6 MW / 21 MWh solar-plus-storage facility on the island. The FIT project’s connected AC capacity is limited to only 845 kW, but the containerised storage solution provided by the company ensures its viability.

CEP.Energy has joined the race that stores the nation, the race, that is, for big battery supremacy. Joining giants like AGL, Origin Energy and Neoen, CEP.Energy has announced plans for a 1.2 GW megabattery in the Hunter region of New South Wales. The battery is one of four in a 2 GW battery storage portfolio planned throughout Australia.

Wood Mackenzie has called on policymakers to revise the Renewable Energy Target with more ambitious goals and, concordantly, large-scale investment in grid flexibility to ensure new renewables can join the grid. If we don’t act in this pivotal moment, WoodMac believes we will be left holding stranded assets.

Chip Breitenkamp, of Nanograf, discusses American battery manufacturing, how to ensure a resilient and equitable supply chain, and how to create jobs.

Canadian behemoth Atco has purchased the rights to develop the 325 MW Central West Pumped Storage Hydro Project in Central West New South Wales and credits the investment to policy certainty from the NSW Government. As a significant firming agent the project is ideally placed in the state’s proposed Central West-Orana Renewable Energy Zone

Herd nutrition, pasture management and solar PV will be the main enablers of net-zero carbon emissions at Ellinbank Smart Farm in Victoria’s dairy country.

The latest GSD — Generator Statistical Digest 2020 — released today by Global-Roam and Greenview Strategic Consulting, shows the value of understanding what’s really happening in the energy market compared to even educated industry assumptions, predictions and aspirations.