Utility Scale Storage

The proposed 35 MW Darwin big battery has received a major financial boost with the Federal Government announcing it will provide $15 million for the project as part of a $30 million funding injection for electricity infrastructure initiatives in the Northern Territory.

Taiwanese module maker URE Corp is planning to link a 150 MW solar plant to a 15 MW/15 MWh storage facility.

The Opposition has blasted the Federal Government after it was revealed a cabinet minister had used extraordinary powers to veto public funding approved for the $380 million Kaban green energy hub in North Queensland, declaring it was inconsistent with the government’s goals and policies.

Australia’s national science agency has identified a potential $3.1 billion industry that is there for the taking with the increasing penetration of renewables in grids nationwide sparking substantial growth in the battery energy storage sector.

A clean energy investment firm based in Canada but already with a growing portfolio in Australia has set out an expansion plan in excess of $2 billion and 1.3 GW for the creation of a Renewable Energy Hub of South Australia, including at least three massive solar projects, two of which would supply South Australia’s green hydrogen ambitions.

An Australian innovation, the unassuming-looking CQSola power controller has under-the-hood smarts that could significantly cut the cost of hydrogen produced using solar energy.

The National Energy Administration has ordered grid companies to supply enough network connection points for all the solar and wind projects registered in 2019 and 2020, and said variable renewables should be supplying 11% of the nation’s electricity by the end of the year.

Pacific Energy subsidiary Contract Power Australia is set to design, construct, install and commission two batteries totalling 42 MW for Fortescue Metals Group as part of its Pilbara Energy Connect project. The storage facility is set to be the largest grid-connected battery system in Western Australia.

The ‘Graphene Revolution’ is drawing near in energy storage, the sector where it is arguably needed most. Univeristy of Queensland scientists who devised aluminium-ion batteries with graphene electrodes have teamed up with Brisbane-based Graphene Manufacturing Group to push the technology into the commercial prototype phase, a potentially early marker for a technology that could transform energy storage.

The project, called the Trillo photovoltaic complex, is located in Spain and will have an installed capacity of 626 MW. Construction is scheduled to begin on May 7.