Balance of Systems

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union is recommending an overhaul of policies to promote manufacturing in regional Australia along with a major push to create new jobs in a range of industries, including lithium batteries, green hydrogen and renewables.

Despite a lack of initiative for the residential battery uptake on the federal level, action on the state and territorial level has been vigorous. In the run-up to the launch of the NSW subsidy scheme, sonnen CEO of APAC Nathan Dunn is talking about the manufacturer’s experience with other subsidy schemes in Australia and what it takes for a successful program.

The China-headquartered battery manufacturer has opened a new assembly facility at Lonsdale, as part of its commitment to the South Australian Government’s Home Battery Scheme. Alpha-ESS batteries will form part of a new virtual power plant launched into the market this week by ShineHub and energy retailer Powershop.

While short of impressive in terms of size, the 9 MW project located near Moree is touted as one of Australia’s smartest solar farms. The project features both DC optimisers and DC coupled battery for central inverters.

GE Renewable Energy has been chosen to supply a massive battery for the 200 MW Solar River Project in South Australia.

An Australian thermal energy storage company has reached in principle agreements to pilot thermal batteries in the telecommunication and eco-housing industries.

Plans to develop a 18 GWh lithium-ion battery factory in northern Queensland have received a major boost with the appointment of National Australia Bank as financial adviser. With the feasibility study nearing completion, project proponents expect the development application to be submitted to Townsville City Council over the coming months.

The Distributed Energy Resource (DER) laboratory “DER-Lab” will provide an environment for safe testing of new technologies including monitoring and communication devices, smart controllers, aggregation (e.g. Virtual Power Plant), market participation software and other innovative new products.

The Brisbane-based energy storage manufacturer has raised $4.75 million in Series A funding from the Queensland Government Business Development Fund and Australian institutional and family investors.

With clean energy being generated at lower and lower prices around the world, solar power is playing a leading role in bringing the curtain down on coal, and will help the decarbonization of transport and space heating too.