The Booming Energy Storage Market in the Midst of the Energy Crisis

Energy storage is set to dramatically change the way the world uses energy in the near future. As well as providing consumers with more flexible, reliable and efficient use of energy, storage is an effective way to smooth the supply of many forms of renewable energy such as solar and wind. It gives consumers greater control over their electricity use and enables them to make the most of the solar energy they generate themselves.

By the end of 2020, 16 large batteries were under construction with over 595 MW of new capacity. 2020 saw the announcement of several other notable utility-scale battery projects, including the NSW Government's commitment to build four new large batteries under its emerging renewable energy program, AGL's plans to build several large battery power station assets on its existing fossil fuel-generated sites and the Western Australian Government's tender for 100MW of batteries, the first to be built on the state's main grid.

Enthusiasm for batteries in Australian households also continued to rise in 2020, with 23,796 batteries installed throughout the year, for a total capacity of 238 MWh. This is an increase on the 22,621 home batteries installed in 2019.

South Australia installed 7,152 home batteries in 2020, the most in Australia, due to strong adoption of the South Australian Government's Home Battery Program. It was closely followed by New South Wales, which installed 6,264 home batteries on the back of the NSW Government's long-awaited Empowering Homes battery loan scheme.

Pumped storage continues to progress steadily into 2020, with the 2000 MW/350,000 MWh Snowy 2.0 project reaching a number of significant development milestones. These include state and federal environmental approvals, all as part of the government's COVID-19 recovery effort, a $125 million transmission investment by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the portion of the approved project to be used during construction of the sectional plant that will produce 130,000 concrete tunnels.

Tasmania's National Battery Project also continues to progress in 2020, with Tasmanian Hydro naming Lake Cetana in north-west Tasmania as the project's first pumped storage hydroelectric plant.

The future of hydro in NSW also looks bright after the NSW Government committed $50 million to support the delivery of pumped storage projects in the state as part of its electricity infrastructure roadmap, with the proposed Oven Mountain pumped storage hydro project seen as key The State Government and GE signed an agreement with Walcha Energy to Dungowan Dam to develop a 500MW pumped storage hydro project.