Canberra to soak up solar with three new community batteries

Three new community batteries will be installed across Canberra over the next year thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the Australian government’s Community Batteries for Household Solar program.

The Albanese government announced over the weekend that it would provide a $1.5 million grant for the installation of three community batteries in the Canberran suburbs of Casey, Dickson, and Fadden.

Designed to store solar energy for use during peak times and share excess power with other households in the neighbourhood, the batteries will provide storage options for those without their own home batteries while providing the benefits of solar to households unable to afford the current costs of installing rooftop solar.

The three new Canberran community batteries are expected to be installed and operational by the end of the first quarter of 2025 and will be designed and maintained by local energy distributor Evoenergy, producing around 160kW of power and storing 400kWh of energy.  

Funding for the three batteries is part of the Australian government’s Community Batteries for Household Solar program which aims to install 400 community batteries across the country with up to $200 million in grants available.

“Delivering more storage enables more households to reliably access the cost-of-living relief offered by solar,” said Chris Bowen, Labor minister for climate change and energy.

“We committed to deploy 400 community batteries to help households access cheaper, cleaner energy, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Over 50 projects have already successfully been awarded grants averaging around $500,000 across most of Australia.

“These batteries will increase storage capacity in the electricity network and allow more households to connect rooftop solar,” said Andrew Barr, Canberra’s chief minister and minister for climate action.

“The ACT continues to lead the nation on climate action, with battery storage technology a critical component of our net-zero emissions future.

“Since 2020, 100% of electricity in the ACT has come from renewable sources, and initiatives like community batteries prove the viability of local renewable energy generation and storage in supporting a robust, affordable, and sustainable energy grid.”

More and more community batteries are being installed across the country. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) revealed late last year that it had seen “unprecedented” demand from communities for its own Community Batteries Funding Program – receiving 140 eligible applications with a total grant request of $1.3 billion, 10-times the $120 million available under the program’s first round of funding.

Further evidence of the growing demand for community batteries was published in April by the Yarra Energy Foundation, who conducted a small survey revealing that more than 80% of respondents said they were “strongly supportive” of a shared battery being installed in their neighbourhood.