ENERGY STORAGE
Homing in on home energy storage If ever there was a moment in history to fast-track the energy market, it’s now. Gas and electricity prices are sky rocketing and consumers are bracing for worse. At the same time the community is more than ready to embrace home energy systems with storage. Here, some thought leaders pitch their concepts on what will or could drive the market.
FIRST THE NUMBERS: although Australia boasts the
distributed sources like batteries in homes, she said.
world’s highest number of rooftop PV systems per
“To meet this, we need new battery installations in
capita due to the more than three million rooftops,
around 100,000 homes each year for the next 10
currently fewer than 140,000 of those homes have a
years. When you consider this is more than three
complementary battery system to store energy.
times what is installed today, it’s clear that AEMO’s
But interest is bubbling in the community, and
target needs us to reassess how to increase access,
research by renewables financier Brighte finds 70 per
lower costs and other barriers, and, importantly, build
cent of customers want a battery; all that is holding
a viable industry to enable it.”
them back is affordability.
Among Katherine’s recommendations for more
“The price point is the biggest challenge,” says
accessible residential batteries: adopt the plan put
Brighte chief executive Katherine McConnell, adding
forward in Helen Haines’ Cheaper Home Batteries Bill
“We can and should do better.”
and extend the existing small-scale renewable energy
She cites AEMO’s Integrated System Plan which
scheme with small-scale technology certificates
identifies more than two-thirds of detached homes
made available to solar systems that are coupled with
should have rooftop solar by 2050 and most of these
batteries.
systems should also have a battery. These batteries should, along with hydro, contribute
Bruce Mountain concurs with Katherine’s views on the pent-up demand and revealed he finds behind-the-
to a significant 45GW of new energy storage in the
meter battery storage – and in particular the growth
grid with nearly three-quarters of this coming from
of VPP offerings – somewhat fascinating.
