A report published today by the Climate Council had some pretty impressive stats on home battery storage uptake in Australia – you can read about that here, on RE sister site One Step Off The Grid.
But the report also had a lot to say about the growing number of large scale energy storage projects being rolled out across the east and west coast grids.
As costs of batteries fall, and older, tried and true technologies like pumped hydro come back into play, Australia “may be on the cusp of an energy storage investment boom, “as governments, regulators and power companies work to ensure a secure, clean and increasingly affordable electricity supply, the report says.
Here’s a picture of what’s happening so far in the exciting large-scale energy storage market…
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
It forgets Burdekin Falls Pumped Hydro in Nth QLD – http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2017/4/30/burdekin-falls-dam-hydroelectricity-to-power-north-queensland-premier
You can’t store electrons in a business case…
Half those projects listed, like Snowy Hydro 2.0, are mere proposals.
Considering it is far north qld and is a project to support the local grid, support solar and regional jobs, and is up against Adani, it deserves our support.
and another 2 from Energy Made Clean (Carnegie Clean Energy subsid.)
Kalbarri, WA
microgrid project 5MW/2MWh, contract awarded
Mungari Solar Farm, Shire of Coolgardie, WA
“up to 20MWh” battery, lease negotiation only at this stage
disclosure: my family has shares in CCE
There’s a proposed 230MW/1,840MWh pumped storage hydro project in SA near the Lincoln Gap wind farm that’s currently going through development approval with the SA government.
It will use 4.5GL of water from the River Murray that will be supplied over 12 months via a nearby SA Water pipeline.
Actually six announced in SA including Cultana referred to in the infographic: Cultana, Middlebank, Goat Hill, Baroota, Highbury Quarry and Kanmantoo – well over 1GW, with 6h+ storage.