Australia’s battery storage boom is gaining traction, with a number of states leading the charge according to the Climate Council’s latest report, Battery Boom: Supercharging Australia’s Renewable Rollout.
South Australia ranking first in the country for its sweeping achievements in grid-scale and household battery storage.
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South Australia is home to the world’s first big battery, the Hornsdale Power Reserve, which charged up in 2017. It has since brought on another five big batteries with several more expected to connect to the grid very soon. Its South Australia Virtual Power Plant and emPowering SA programs are also charging up social housing, private homes, and entire communities.
South Australia falls just behind the Northern Territory for the highest proportion of rooftop solar systems with a battery, with 15.9% of homes with solar in the Northern Territory also teamed with a household battery.
Western Australia ranks first in the country for the number of big batteries in service or being commissioned, with eight big batteries in the service or commissioning phase. Two of these are Australia’s biggest, being installed in the historic coal town of Collie, and are set to be up and running later this year. These will assist the transition to clean, affordable, reliable renewable energy as the WA government closes its last two state-owned coal-fired generators by 2029.
Finally, Victoria ranks first in the country for the number of operational community-scale batteries, installing 140 community batteries across the state.
The report also highlights the more than 20GW of battery storage in the national pipeline—almost double what was planned just a year ago.
Adding two million household batteries would collectively save Australians more than $4 billion a year on their power bills.
In Australia, the upfront cost of big batteries has fallen 20% last year alone.
Climate Councillor and energy expert Greg Bourne said, “Around 40% of our main energy grid is powered by sun and wind. Batteries are our bridge to a 21st century energy grid; keeping the lights on in our homes, schools, and workplaces as our ageing coal fleet eventually retires by 2040.
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“We already generate an excess of clean, reliable, renewable energy from Australia’s abundant sun and wind. Rather than simply letting it go to waste and missing out on the savings, batteries will help soak it all up and put it to good use during periods of high demand.
“As our transport fleet progressively electrifies, those batteries can also help our grid and provide extra resilience to the system overall.”
