Utility Scale Storage

The electric vehicle and storage manufacturer shared insight into its Megapack energy storage business and the Megapack XL, the stationary battery storage product that Tesla says has the highest energy density on the market.

Electricity retailer Zen Energy has announced plans to develop its first utility-scale battery energy storage system after acquiring the 111 MW/270 MWh Templers Battery project in South Australia from UK-based developer Renewable Energy Systems Group.

Investment in financially committed large-scale renewable energy generation and storage projects in Australia ramped up in the final three months of 2022 to its highest level in more than four years but the Clean Energy Council has warned the pace remains inadequate.

Queensland government-owned renewable energy corporation CleanCo has unveiled plans to transform the former coal-fired Swanbank power precinct in the state’s southeast into a clean energy hub with the potential to generate up to 1.2 GW of clean energy.

Australian resources developer Vecco Group has secured state government backing to build a $26 million (USD 17 million) vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in the north Queensland city of Townsville with production set to be used in grid-scale vanadium flow battery projects.

The investment platforms from Octopus Investments Australia are set to acquire three new projects in the coming months in Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales. Launched in 2022, the OREO and OASIS platforms “allow wholesale investors and mums and dads to invest alongside big institutional investors and get access to big projects in Australia,” Managing Director Sam Reynolds told pv magazine Australia.

Last year was another landmark 12 months for energy storage, with all indicators pointing to a massive surge in demand. Supply chain instability and inflation saw battery prices rise, but the industry demonstrated an ability to swiftly react to geopolitical developments. Marija Maisch examines five trends driving the market.

Australian energy storage systems provider Evo Power has teamed with battery optimisation technology provider Evergen in a move which aims to make it easier for commercial and industrial-scale battery customers to optimise and monetise their assets.

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes’ family fund Grok Ventures is among the initial investors in Canberra-based Infradebt’s Energy Transition Fund. The fund will finance six to eight grid-scale battery projects with a total capacity of up to 2 GW.

A huge renewable energy zone to be established on the New South Wales south coast has been formally declared, potentially unlocking more than 17 GW of solar, wind, battery storage, pumped hydro, hydrogen and new load projects, including green steel manufacturing.