The past year has seen a record $2 billion committed to large-scale storage in Australia, with 14 projects securing investment.
New Clean Energy Council data has revealed the record investment, with the 12-month rolling average of energy output from utility-scale storage reaching a record high of 1984MWh – almost four times higher than in late 2021.
Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton says this record investment recognises the role of energy storage in supporting the transition to clean energy in Australia, however he emphasises these levels must continue to be accelerated into the future.
“We must provide the firming capacity needed to complement solar and wind generation, and supply crucial system services such as system strength and inertia,” he says.
“Storage can also drastically improve transmission economics by acting as a ‘shock absorber’ that allows more clean, low-cost renewable energy to flow across the grid to consumers.
“The Queensland and Victorian governments have recently announced enormous steps forward in policy with their respective targets so we expect the necessary investment to follow.”
Thornton says clear policy direction from the Federal Government is enabling investment in large-scale storage projects.
“Industry confidence to invest is growing, aided by clearer and more potent policy directions across the country [since the federal election in May] but the investment trend during the past year shows we need a sustained focus on the energy transition from all governments,” he says.
“We need to see more projects coming more quickly through state planning systems, and policy settings that send consistent signals for ongoing investment.
“Reform of the energy market must continue apace to ensure stronger investment signals and certainty, and to avoid any reforms that might undermine investment confidence.
“We need to fix the connection and commissioning process to get projects through all the hurdles and actually start producing power.
“The connection process was designed years ago to account for a few hundred megawatts connecting every few years.
“This highlights the importance of accelerating reform of the connection process to get projects connected faster.
“The Clean Energy Council is working collaboratively with the Australian Energy Market Operator to achieve this through the Connections Reform Initiative.”