Energy Storage

BloombergNEF says falling battery costs and “surging” renewables penetration make energy storage a “compelling flexible resource in many power systems.” Australia is among the predicted top markets.

Less than a year ago and energy market analysts Cornwall Insight Australia projected a battery energy storage pipeline of 7 GW. This week the firm has updated its outlook and puts Australia’s current pipeline of proposed projects at over 26 GW. What is more, the technical lifetime of these assets is increasing too.

Israel-based Augwind has built its first 250 kW/1 MWh compressed air storage system for the collective community of Yahel, in the southern, desert part of the country. The commercial scale facility will be connected to a PV system and will be used for behind-the-meter services.

Factories suffering from rationed grid electricity could help drive a boom in on-site solar systems, and recent moves to mandate the retrofitting of PV on existing buildings could also lift the market, as analyst Frank Haugwitz explains.

Construction has begun on a manufacturing pilot project to see battery-grade nickel, cobalt and manganese for precursor battery cathode materials (PCAM) in Perth. The facility is expected to be completed in early 2022 and is one of a number of developments that will look to establish Western Australia (WA) as a materials supplier to the growing battery manufacturing industry.

Australian clean energy investment firm Providence Asset Group will roll out hydrogen-lithium battery technology at its solar farms after partnering with the Commonwealth Bank to fund a portfolio of 10 community-based solar plants in regional Victoria as part of the group’s larger ambitions to develop up to 40 ~5 MW solar farms across the eastern states.

A report from Australia’s Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre which analysed the development of battery hubs in the U.S., Germany and Japan, has found that co-location and cooperation between industry and government were key to hub success. For Australia to play the same game, it will have to leverage its wealth of resources, and clean up its act along the way.

The first big battery to stand alone without government support, Bouldercombe Battery Project capitalises on Genex Power’s experience gained on the road to Kidston Clean Energy Hub.

Rose Amal arrived in Australia from Indonesia 38 years ago to study at UNSW. Now her leadership and research are contributing to a new sustainable economy for Australia and clean fuels for energy-hungry industries.

The project includes a solar park coupled with what HDF Energy claims is the “largest green hydrogen storage of intermittent electricity sources” at 128 MWh. Importantly, the company also simultaneously announced expansion plans into Australia, saying its hydrogen technology will soon be available here, adding that it has “projects already in development for Australia”.