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E L E CT R I C AL CONNE CT I ON
S P R I NG 2 01 5
COVER STORY
Assault of the battery
E
nergy storage has been hailed
by many as a game-changer for
the power industry – touted to
do to the energy market what Web 2.0
did to media consumption. And while
the technologies on the market today
aren’t sufficiently advanced to make it an
economically viable option for most, it may
only a matter of time before the energy
market landscape changes forever.
John Grimes is chief executive of the
Energy Storage Council (ESC) and the
Australian Solar Council (ASC) and has
seen a dramatic increase in focus on the
energy storage issue over the past three
years. While the market in Australia remains
embryonic, John has seen a particularly
strong pull towards on-grid energy storage
in conjunction with solar, and a steep overall
rise in market awareness and consumer
interest in the emergent technologies.
“One of the big spin-offs of the billions of
dollars that has been ploughed into electric
vehicle research in places like China and
the US has been energy dense, compact
and relatively inexpensive batteries. Most
developers are using lithium-ion technology
– the same as in mobile phones, laptops and
many power tools – so people are pretty
familiar with that kind of battery. These have
been scaled up to be used in domestic or
small business applications.
“There are a range of products available
now that look like anything from a mini
bar fridge through to a full height fridge
that will store anywhere between 1kWh to
10kWh of electricity,” John says.
This gives solar customers the ability to
store energy acquired in peak generation
times that would otherwise be exported,
for little or no return, back to the grid. They
can then use this energy when it is needed
and reduce tariffs paid to utilities, or avoid
them altogether.
“People are increasingly looking for
energy storage sufficient to capture energy
production mid-afternoon and use it when
they get home in the evening. So it’s about
time shifting from when the energy is
produced to when the customer actually
needs the energy in their house.”
The problem with the storage solutions
currently on the market is that prices are
prohibitively high if any economic gains are
to be made by the process.
“Today there are solutions available to
buy that will cost you the equivalent of
about 30c/kWh. That’s still a bit high for
most of us because grid electricity sells
for around 25-28c/kWh on average. But
in some parts of regional Australia people
are paying energy rates upwards of 42c/
kWh so in those cases it’s already a viable
money saving solution,” John says.
However, technologies are evolving
rapidly and several new products that
could significantly reduce storage costs are
poised for imminent release.
“I’m aware of three companies that are
coming to market this year with solutions
that will be significantly cheaper. Once
you have a battery storage solution that
delivers you energy at a cost less than you
can buy it from the grid it starts to get
really interesting and will open up a lot of
market applications.”
Tesla’s Powerwall unit, due to hit the
market towards the end of the year, is already
available for pre-order and is reportedly
experiencing overwhelming demand. The
sleek, wall-mounted Powerwall units will
be available in 7kWh and 10kWh sizes with
the ability to ‘stack’ up to nine units to fulfil a
range of energy requirements.
German company Daimler AG is
also primed to enter the market with
Mercedes-Benz branded, scalable lithium-
ion batteries. And Panasonic is currently
conducting Australian tests on an 8kWh
unit the company estimates will double a
household’s self-consumption.
“According to research done by the
Rocky Mountain Institute, places like
The way we provide and
consume energy is destined to
undergo a paradigm shift – and
maybe much sooner than we
think.
Jacob Harris
explains.