Victoria Labor promises another 100 neighbourhood batteries to soak up rooftop solar

Victorian Labor says it will install 100 neighbourhood batteries across the state if re-elected later this month, to make the most of the state’s rooftop solar resource and help stabilise an increasingly renewable grid.

Daniel Andrews, whose government is in caretaker mode ahead of the November 16 state election, says the $42 million community battery rollout will spread the benefits of rooftop solar to households otherwise unable to access it.

“These neighbourhood batteries will store this clean, cheap energy when it is abundant during the day and feed it back into the grid when it’s needed at night – keeping the lights on and power bills down,” Andrews says.

“Victoria is the battery capital of Australia with a world-leading storage target. Now we’re building 100 neighbourhood batteries across the state to make sure all families can share the savings from our solar boom.”

Location, location, location

Andrews says the batteries will be rolled out across 28 Victorian communities, with 15 slated for installation in metropolitan Melbourne and 13 in regional Victoria.

The size and energy storage duration of the batteries is not specified in the release, but according to an ANU report published in 2020, community-scale energy storage generally ranges in capacity from 100kW-1MW.

An initial short-list of 28 locations pinpointed for community batteries includes regional centres like Ballarat, East Gippsland, Greater Bendigo, Wangaratta and Mornington Peninsula. In the suburbs, Greater Dandenong, Knox, Moonee Valley and Port Phillip Bay are among those listed. (See the full list below)

For the remaining 72 locations, Andrews says his government will work with community organisations, local governments and distribution companies to identify the best places for the batteries.

Labor’s energy storage push

Already in Victoria, community-scale grid connected batteries have been installed in Fitzroy North and Yackandandah and are being deployed in Tarneit – one of the state’s most solar saturated subirbs – and Phillip Island.

The promise to deliver 100 neighbourhood batteries comes just weeks after the Andrews government set an Australia-first energy storage target for the state of 2.6GW of new capacity by 2030 and 6.3GW by 2035.

The Andrews government on Tuesday announced plans to legislate what it says would be the biggest energy storage targets in Australia, alongside a $157 million funding package to boost Victoria’s shift to renewable energy and away from coal.

As part of that target, Labor announced funding for a new 125MW/250MWh big battery and grid forming inverter between Bendigo and Red Cliffs, in the state’s north west, and a 100MW/200MWh battery to be built in Terang.

A crucial piece of the puzzle

Energy storage will be crucial to the shift to renewable energy, from a mix of long duration energy storage technologies like pumped hydro, to big batteries, community-scale batteries and behind-the-meter energy storage from batteries in homes and inside electric vehicles.

As the ANU report from 2020 finds, community-scale batteries such as being promised by Victoria Labor can offer benefits over household batteries, including boosting networks’ ability to host more distributed solar.

This sort of mid-scale energy storage can also boost energy equity, by giving a wider range of households access the benefits of solar.

But further research from ANU published earlier this year warns that the positive benefits of neighbourhood batteries are not guaranteed, with difficulties around ownership models and regulatory and market settings.

As Total Environment Centre’s Mark Byrne wrote here in May, the introduction of cost reflective network tariffs should help ensure neighbourhood batteries are installed where they will have the greatest economic, social and environmental benefits.

Initial Neighbourhood Battery locations

Ballarat
Bass Coast
Baw Baw
Campaspe
Cardinia
Casey
Darebin
East Gippsland
Greater Bendigo
Greater Dandenong
Greater Shepparton
Hume
Knox
Macedon Ranges
Maribyrnong
Merri-Bek
Mildura
Moira
Monash
Moonee Valley
Mornington Peninsula
Port Phillip Bay
Wangaratta
Wellington
Whittlesea
Wodonga
Wyndham
Yarra Ranges