New big battery projects in Australia double in size as storage prices plunge
As new wind and solar projects continue to stall at the gate, battery storage is having a record breaking year, with construction numbers for 2024 on track to beat last year's.
Analysts say close to 3GW and 8GWh of new battery storage capacity has started being constructed in 2024.
Construction starts are expected to exceed 5 GW by the end of the year.
Among the projects are the second stage of the Eraring battery, which will add 240 MW and more than four hours of storage.
A series of four hour batteries have started construction in Western Australia, where projects are being contracted to time shift solar from the middle of the day to evening peaks.
More four-hour batteries are popping up, with the focus now on longer storage and arbitrage where earlier batteries were focused on system services and grid support.
Battery storage costs are also falling significantly, highlighted by the cost reveal from Origin Energy when it announced the second stage of its Eraring battery.
Prices for battery storage projects have fallen dramatically from around $900-$1,000 per kWh in the middle of 2024 to $500 to $625 per kWh now.
In a separate report, BloombergNEF notes that storage is growing rapidly, with 7.8 GW of new grid scale batteries under construction.
This is nearly as much capacity as new wind and solar under construction, which currently stands at 8.9 GW across the country.