Bowen’s Community And Big Battery Blitz: More Details

Buzz about batteries was again stirred up over the weekend by Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen. Here’s what’s happening.

Community Battery Rollout – Next Steps

One of the Albanese Government’s election commitments was a $200 million investment over four years to deliver large batteries to around 400 communities; part of Labor’s Powering Australia plan. Mr. Bowen went on a pledging spree in the lead-up to the election, promising a bunch of communities one of these batteries.

But there will be some hoops for these communities and their Distributed Network Service Providers (DNSPs) to jump through. On the weekend, Minister Bowen announced the release of grant guidelines for the first 58 batteries promised.

The guidelines have been released in advance of applications opening on 30 January 2023. Guidelines for the first two streams are available here (Stream 1) and here (Stream 2). Grants between $100,000 and $500,000 will be available per eligible location, providing $1,000 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of battery storage capacity and up to 100% of eligible project expenditure.

As for the other 342 community batteries, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will develop a program to deliver them after a stakeholder consultation process.

Commenting on the initiative, Minister Bowen said:

“One in every three Australian households have solar panels – the highest rate in the world – but far fewer have batteries to store their energy for later use. Community batteries can do this while also allowing stored energy to be shared with others who can’t install rooftop solar.”

More Bucks For Big Batteries

Also announced on Saturday was a $176 million dollar investment to support eight big batteries across the country under the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA’s) Large Scale Battery Storage Funding Round.

The new battery projects to receive funding:

• 250 MW / 500 MWh – Liddell, NSW (AGL).
• 250 MW / 550 MWh – Gnarwarre, VIC (FRV)
• 200 MW / 400 MWh – Hopeland, QLD (Neoen)
• 200 MW / 400 MWh – Blyth, SA (Neoen)
• 300 MW / 900 MWh – Mortlake, VIC (Origin)
• 200 MW / 400 MWh – Bungama, SA (Risen)
• 300 MW / 600 MWh – Mount Fox, QLD (TagEnergy)

Also included is a retrofit to Neoen’s 300 MW / 450 MWh Victorian Big Battery in Moorabool, which will enable grid-forming capability. The total value of all projects is around $2.7 billion.

“This investment looks to deliver around 2GW of dispatchable power, to ensure Australian households and businesses can count on the increasingly renewable energy they use being available when they need it,” said Minister Bowen.

The announcement was made at the site of the 50MW/75MWh Wallgrove Grid Battery (WGB) facility in Western Sydney (pictured above), which is now fully operational. New South Wales’ first grid-scale battery, the WGB has exported more than 23GWh of energy since starting operations and is now the first in the state to demonstrate synthetic inertia capabilities. The WGB project has also been supported with funding from ARENA.

What About Home Batteries?

Several states/territories offer home battery subsidies, but there’s nothing available at a federal level at this point in time.

There have been recent calls for Australia’s national solar panel “rebate” program to be extended to incorporate home solar energy storage; and it’s an idea that seems pretty popular with Australians according to results of a recent survey. But there’s been nothing to indicate the Albanese Government is considering this.