Australia says it leads R&D on renewables grid integration

Australia has been identified as a world leader in the initiation and development of research projects investigating the integration of renewable energy on centralised electricity grids, a new report has found.

A total of 208 projects said to add to the “collective knowledge and experience of integrating renewable energy into distribution networks” has been catalogued by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Energy Networks Association, in a global stocktake released on Thursday.

Of that number – which includes 15 newly added projects – a total of 131 originated in Australia, while the remaining 77 come from elsewhere around the globe.

Five of the Australian projects were also identified as leaders in their field, including Hydro Tasmania’s  King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project, the CSIRO Future Grid Forum, Ausgrid’s Smart Grid, Smart City Project and the QUT’s Planning Future Energy Grid: Renewables project.

Of course, for Australia – with its aging, sprawling, centralised and fossil fuelled electricity grid – the integration of distributed renewable energy generation, including millions of solar rooftops, should indeed be a high priority.

And ARENA – a government body the federal Coalition still hopes to abolish – has been a major driver of innovation and research in the area.

“As more de-centralised renewable energy comes online, there will be a myriad of challenges and opportunities for utilities, energy retailers and policy makers to work through,” said ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht in a statement on Thursday.

“The Stocktake will be invaluable for facilitating this work by providing a one-stop-shop for information on current projects, along with the outcomes of past efforts,” he said.

ENA CEO John Bradley said the updated Stocktake – which ENA has been working on with ARENA since 2014 – would make it easier for the renewables and electricity network sectors to work together increasing the supply of renewable energy in Australia.

“It’s critical that energy networks, the renewables sector, research institutions and technology developers collaborate to advance the evolution of the energy system,” he said.

Bradley pointed to the QUT-Ergon Energy Planning Future Energy Grids: Renewables  project as an example, where researchers had developed viable tools for predicting output from rooftop solar, couple with the optimal use of grid-connected battery storage.

“This is a vital project given Australia leads the world in the penetration of rooftop solar panels,” he said, “with 1.5 million installations delivering over 5000 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity.”