Batteries for When the Clouds Cover the Sun

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Australia is hurtling towards a federal election in one month’s time. The twin issues of cost of living and the price of energy are being constantly thrust in our faces on social media and prime time TV advertising. The contrast is strong. The current government is offering an increase in the minimum wage and a continuing focus on renewables. The opposition is proposing nuclear energy mixed with a lot of fear mongering. In an exciting twist, they are also talking about subsidising home batteries.

In the midst of this, Brisbane has had a cyclone to contend with and outback Australia has had a pseudo monsoon wiping out farmers and their stock across three states (Queensland, New South Wales, and the Northern Territory). The weather is the news. Hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and kangaroos have drowned. Never a dull moment in Australia. Trump may not need to tariff our beef — there might not be much to sell. We survived a trade war with China. The biggest impact for us was cheaper lobster and wine. Now, we might get cheaper steaks!

During Queensland’s recent severe weather event, Cyclone Alfred, we experienced first-hand how dense clouds can affect solar PV production. Our home battery did not fill, and we had to rely on the grid. On a cloudy day across most of the populated areas of our vast continent, the state grids are having to rely heavily on coal. Victoria’s electricity is 60% brown coal, NSW 60% relies on black coal and Queensland about 75%. There is more work to be done.

As the transition continues, batteries of all shapes and sizes are being added. Home batteries, community batteries, and large-scale batteries are getting a lot of publicity. Of course, in the present weather situation where have had dense cloud on and off for several weeks, more options, like pumped hydro and offshore wind, also need to be on the table. For those who want the whole picture, Renew Economy provides an interactive map listing all BESS and their status in Australia. 

Australia is moving into winter, which means shorter days and less sunshine. Batteries are stepping in to meet the ever earlier nightfall, and the concomitant peak energy usage. South Australia can supply most of its electricity from rooftop solar, and uses batteries to soak up the excess and supply it in the evening peak. West Australia is the world’s largest isolated grid. It cannot export excess to other states and so relies more heavily on batteries.

Western Australia is rapidly deploying big batteries. Six are under construction at the moment. Two of these will claim the crown as the biggest in the country. However, these records do not last long. There appears to always be a bigger battery under construction. Within 5 years, Western Australia will retire all of its coal-fired generators. It is expected that the batteries will be invaluable for storing rooftop solar electricity for the evening peak and overnight use. By the end of 2027, Western Australia is expected to have 2 GW and nearly 8 GWh of this battery capacity. Western Australia has an average demand of just over 2 GW, and peak demand is around 4.2 GW. That should be more than enough.

Community batteries throughout urban Australia are being co-funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). AU$46.3 million is now available in round two. You can read previous articles about them here. The guidelines state: “each community battery must be between 50 kW and 5 MW in size and connected to the distribution network.”

“Part of increasing our dependency on renewably sourced energy is the need to increase our firming technology to make sure the energy grid is secure and reliable. We can achieve this by storing energy in batteries when renewable energy is plentiful and use this stored energy later in the day and overnight when people most need it,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller. This flyover video illustrates the relationship between local solar and a community battery.

Prices in Australia’s evening peaks are generally set by the gas sector. However, the Australian Electricity Management Operator’s latest report (Q4 2024) indicates that big batteries now account for almost a quarter of the “price setting market” in peak electricity use. Batteries have overtaken gas and coal, and are only second to hydro.

This is in the context of the highest energy demand placed on the Australian grid since 2016. Demand was up 2.4% on Q4 2023. “Distributed photovoltaic (PV) output was at an all-time quarterly high in all NEM regions, with a NEM-wide average output of 4,054 MW, 18% higher than the previous record of 3,433 MW set in Q4 2023.”

As each day brings more announcements of more and bigger batteries, it also requires changes to policy and procedures. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is working to better integrate grid-scale batteries into the National Electricity Market (NEM). As of mid 2024 grid-scale batteries accounted for approximately 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of storage capacity in the NEM. This is expected to exceed 12 GW by 2050.

“As part of AEMO’s NEM Reform Program, the changes allow batteries to register, bid and dispatch as a single unit. Until now, participants with batteries that feed energy into the NEM as well as draw on energy, were required to duplicate each of these processes — one for generation and one for consumption.” AEMO is seeking to remove the barriers to new battery systems participating in the NEM.

“Grid-scale batteries enable Australia to harness an abundant solar resource. If we can capture the solar energy created in the middle of the day to charge these batteries, they can then meet peak demand at night, helping to reduce our reliance on ageing thermal generation,” said AEMO’s Executive General Manager of Reform Delivery, Violette Mouchaileh. AEMO is collaborating with industry stakeholders in these reforms. “Ongoing collaboration with industry is critical as the NEM Reform Program continues to implement the necessary changes to meet Australia’s future energy needs,” Ms Mouchaileh added.

Here is just one example of the battery pipeline: ZEN Energy. ZEN claims to be “Australia’s first electricity retailer to have a near-term science-based emissions reduction target in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C.” Sadly, in my humble opinion, we have well and truly missed that target. “ZEN stands for ZERO EMISSIONS NOW. Not tomorrow.”

To meet its goal, ZEN Energy is planning to co-develop around 695 megawatts (MW) of multi-hour big batteries and 100 MW of solar across three Australian states. Anticipated sites are Wagga Wagga, New South Wales; Gympie, Queensland; and Gippsland, Victoria. Construction is expected to begin next year. I’m looking forward to news of progress. ZEN is also progressing with a project to utilise an old coal washing pit in NSW for pumped hydro.

In a “where are they now” moment, I discovered that Ross Garnaut is a director at ZEN Energy. Dr Garnaut was an advisor to the government and featured strongly in the climate wars of Australia’s lost energy decade (2010–2020). He is famous for this quote: “The fog of Australian politics on climate change has obscured a fateful reality: Australia has the potential to be an economic superpower of the future post-carbon world.”

It is great to see that he can make a practical impact towards his vision.

It’s all happening Down Under! Batteries great and small are storing energy when it is abundant and free, and feeding it back into the grid when needed and expensive. These batteries range from our home battery of about 14 kWh, through community batteries up to 5 MW, to the behemoth BESS’s fighting for the crown of Australia’s biggest. As ever, the future looks bright and electric!