Energy Storage

Retailer Powershop Australia is partnering with Reposit Power to offer a customers with rooftop PV and battery storage a quarterly payment plan in exchange for access to customers’ batteries. The Virtual Power Plant program will be called Grid Impact and Powershop says it will help stabilise the electricity network.

French firm Neoen has begun development on a hydrogen electrolyser to be colocated alongside a 150 MW wind project and 150 MW solar farm. The project has been awarded a grant of $1 million by the South Australian Renewable Technology fund, with more funding yet to be approved.

Despite a lackluster Q4, GTM Research predicts that the U.S. energy storage market is going to boom in 2018, driven by both policy support and falling prices.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is seeking industry input into the setting up of a new register for small-scale battery storage and solar systems. The goal of the registry is to provide the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and network operators more insight into consumer demand.

The latest arrival to the Australian battery storage market will now have the backing of a major German utility. German storage provider Senec has been acquired by EnBW, one of Germany’s ‘big three’ utilities.

In yet another renewable energy related election commitment, South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill has pledged to offer loans to 10,000 households to install rooftop solar and battery storage, which will be made available interest-free for the first seven years.

Australia is on the cusp of a residential battery storage boom. The Climate Council published the forecast last week in its Fully Charged: Renewables and Storage Powering Australia report. BNEF confirms with pv magazine Australia that as a result of the rapid growth, Australia is alongside Germany as the fastest growing market for residential battery storage.

German battery and solar energy company sonnen will move its Australian headquarters from Sydney to Adelaide where it will also establish a manufacturing hub.

Australia’s first large scale solar+storage array has been grid connected, in Northern Queensland. The collocated 10.8 MW solar and 1.4 MW/5.3 MWh battery storage system is set to demonstrate the value of dispatchable PV to networks and asset owners.

Despite hitting a record 1.17 GW of new grid-scale storage capacity in 2017, growth was a mere 4.6% on 2016 having surged 61% the year prior. Industry’s reliance on policy support means foundations for growth remain uneven, report finds. Average costs, however, fell by 24% last year.