Australia has all the key ingredients to build a booming battery industry. We just need to find the right cooks and co-ordinate all of this frantic activity to get this big opportunity right.
In some cases, adding a battery to your rooftop solar system will pay off. But to be sure of this, households need information about many factors – and there’s no single reliable place to find it.
A heater with a 300-litre tank can store as much energy as a home battery at a fraction of the cost. Being able to store surplus solar energy at the right times helps grid stability and cuts emissions.
Are blackouts really looming by the middle of this decade? An AEMO report warns they might be – but there are plenty of projects on the drawing board that will help ease the squeeze on the grid.
There are gaps in UK households’ understanding of their energy usage.
Daisy Daisy/Shutterstock
Soheil Mohseni, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Alan Brent, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
A technique called ‘energy arbitrage’ allows owners of local ‘microgrids’ to make a profit by designing the network to buy cheap power, store it and sell it back at a higher price.
By pairing solar power and battery storage, hybrids can keep providing electricity after dark.
Petmal via Getty Images
Joachim Seel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Bentham Paulos, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Will Gorman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The largest category of power plants applying to connect to the US grid are now solar, and over a third of those are hybrids that include battery storage.
Building solar panels over water sources is one way to both provide power and reduce evaporation in drought-troubled regions.
Robin Raj, Citizen Group & Solar Aquagrid
From pulling carbon dioxide out of the air to turning water into fuel, innovators are developing new technologies and pairing existing ones to help slow global warming.
The rules governing Australia’s electricity market are more than 20 years old and no longer serve consumers, or climate action. But big energy companies are using COVID-19 to delay reform.
Serious lead poisoning cases are a growing problem on the continent.
GeetyImages
Unregulated and hazardous lead acid battery manufacturing and recycling plants are often adjacent to residential areas, agricultural and grazing lands.
Renewable energy being installed at a community in the Northern Territory. Researchers have predicted Australia’s emissions are set to fall, but warn the renewables deployment rate must continue.
Lucy Hughes-Jones/AAP
A year ago, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery began dispatching power to South Australia’s grid. It has been a remarkable success but there are some concerns that have so far escaped scrutiny
With the right settings, Labor’s new scheme could benefit householders as well as the grid itself.
Shutterstock.com
Federal Labor has promised to give rebates of up to $2,000 to 100,000 households to install batteries to store power from solar panels. Is this good energy policy, or just middle-class welfare?
Research is finding better ways to make batteries both big and small.
Romaset/Shutterstock.com
Is it too much to dream of batteries that are part of the structure of an item, helping to shape the form of a smartphone, car or building while also powering its functions?
Already out of charge – again?!
fizkes/Shutterstock.com