7 August 2016

17 proposals in battery storage auction

| Michael Reid
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Battery storage

A total of 17 proposals have been received in the Next Generation energy storage auction that will lead to up to $2 million being allocated to five companies to install solar storage in Canberra.

The deadline for proposals closed last Wednesday and the successful companies will be announced after proponent capability, product and delivery risks and local investment benefits are assessed.

The bids propose to install more than 8MW of storage and were received from a range of local and national businesses, many with strong international partnerships.

Environment and climate change minister Simon Corbell said on Monday that spreading the grants across a number of providers would encourage competition, innovation and support for a range of technologies.

“This grant round is expected to support the roll-out of more than 2MW of energy storage across more than 600 Canberra homes and businesses,” he said.

“It was a requirement of this grant round that interested companies only use energy storage systems that are capable of responding to changes in energy markets in order to maximise the value for consumers and the electricity network.

“In addition, proponents were required to provide a minimum 10-year product warranty period for the installed batteries and establish an office in Canberra for local sales and support.”

Corbell said the ACT government had targeted solar battery storage in its plans to reduce emissions, grow the renewable energy industry in the ACT, and position Canberra as an internationally recognised centre for renewable energy.

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All fabulous questions that my Grandkids ask too (sort of). I make them use books n stuff from the library. Oh yes, they complain about having to find stuff out for themselves but how else will they actually learn?

8 MW is about 50 cars. Why not just spend the money on electric car subsidies

dungfungus said :

Is the cost of this new storage infrastructure to be added to all our electricity bills by ACTEWAGL or is it already included in the electricity price rises announced by the ACT Gov’t because of the solar farms ????

Both. But with every ‘upgrade’ you’ll only get one figure an announcement of how good we all are.

We could just invest in sources that produce 24×7.

Is the cost of this new storage infrastructure to be added to all our electricity bills by ACTEWAGL or is it already included in the electricity price rises announced by the ACT Gov’t because of the solar farms ????

wildturkeycanoe8:26 am 12 Jul 16

The entire concept of energy storage relies on one important factor, that we have excess energy to spare. If we have so much solar and wind power right now that we can “bank” some of it for later use, why haven’t the coal fired power stations shut themselves down? By storing coal powered, non-renewable energy we have gained absolutely nothing. In actual fact we have made losses in the process as no storage is 100% efficient. So without lowering coal output to practically nothing, how is storage going to benefit us in the present? Wind and solar power will be entirely used up during their production cycles as they merely take load off the big power stations.
Unless there is some sort of commitment to reduce coal fired power output that equates to the amount being generated by renewables, storage is purely adding another cost to our electricity prices by forcing up the cost of both coal and stored green energy.

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