AUSTRALIA is riding a wave of energy storage projects, with construction sweeping across Australia in the wake of the world's most powerful battery being switched on in South Australia.
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Energy storage has become an increasingly popular topic over the past year as it can provide a solution to Australia’s three aims of having clean, reliable and affordable electricity.
The world’s most powerful lithium-ion battery was switched on in South Australia in November last year.
The battery – which can power a total of 60,000 homes for four hours – is significant not just because it is the most powerful in the world.
It is on the crest of a wave of energy storage projects sweeping across Australia, bringing our country’s ageing and trouble-plagued electricity grid into the 21st century.
Today, Australia’s electricity grid is ageing and heavily centralised, with much of our electricity generated at 20 large coal power stations.
More than half of these power stations will be in excess of 40 years old by 2030.
To replace them, more wind and solar plants are being built than ever before.
Queensland is becoming the new home of large-scale solar plants, while South Australia has already charged past 50 per cent renewable energy – eight years ahead of schedule.
Wind and solar are the cheapest forms of new generation, outcompeting polluting fossil fuel plants and reducing power bills.
There are no technical barriers to transitioning to 100 per cent renewable energy, which we must do quickly if we are to avoid dangerous climate change.
But we cannot complete the transition without energy storage.
Energy storage means we can rely on wind and solar power all day, every day.
When old clunkers like the Yallourn and Liddell coal plants break down, energy storage can power up.
When gas generators send electricity prices sky-high by gaming the market, energy storage can bring prices back down to earth.
And with enough energy storage – whether we’re talking batteries, pumped hydro or solar thermal – there is no barrier to how much renewable energy Australia can build and generate.
We are already witnessing how energy storage can work in practice.
Tesla’s big battery began operating one day early in order to help meet electricity demand on a scorching spring day, after one of Victoria’s coal plants went missing in action.
The battery has also secured the grid after a generator at a coal power station in Victoria unexpectedly stopped working, sending electrical frequency plummeting.
The battery was able to swoop in to stabilise the grid, until other generation sources could start up. There are even more energy storage projects on the horizon, with dozens of batteries and pumped hydro projects planned across the country.
In a few years, there could be big batteries powering up the grid in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory, and pumped hydro in Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia.
Several of these projects are already in construction.
So don’t believe the naysayers – energy storage is the key to unlocking a clean, reliable and affordable energy future for Australia. And it’s available now.