Australia’s largest behind the meter battery system charges up at Monash

As Victoria heads to an election heavily focused on energy affordability and secturity, the state’s biggest university has quietly installed Australia’s largest commercial behind-the-meter battery storage system, on a path to becoming 100 per cent energy self-sufficient.

The system, installed by Monash University inside its new Bio-medical Learning and Teaching Building (pictured above) at the Clayton Campus, combines a 180kW/900kWh vanadium redox flow battery system and a 120kW/120kWh C1-rated lithium battery.

Installed by UK-based industrial energy storage specialists redT Energy, it is the award-winning centrepiece of Monash’s industry-leading $135 million shift to net-zero emissions and 100 per cent renewables by 2030.

These targets are no small task: Monash is Australia’s largest university, and – with more than 70,000 students and 150 buildings spread across four domestic campuses – a significant consumer of energy.

So far, however, a comprehensive strategy devised with the help of ClimateWorks, and overseen by Monash’s Net Zero Initiative program director Scott Ferraro, has achieved a great deal.