A new report, titled Powerful Potential: Battery Storage for Renewable Energy and Electric Cars, by the Climate Council has revealed that Australia is on its way to become a world leader in home battery storage.
According to the study, the cost of battery storage is set to continue to fall and half of all households in Australia are predicted to adopt solar systems with battery storage.
“It could be a game changer allowing households to control their energy and energy bills” Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie said.
“Already 1.4 million Australian households power their homes with solar. Household batteries will mean that households can store the power they make and have the flexibility to use it later on.”
The report also found that solar PV systems with added battery storage will become the most economical solution to providing electricity as feed-in tariffs are phased out and grid electricity becomes more expensive.
“Australians are forging a people-led renewables revolution. Australia leads the world in rooftop solar with more than twice the solar PV penetration rates of the next country (Belgium) and more than three times the penetration of Germany, the US and the UK,” said Ms McKenzie.
“Now we have the opportunity to lead the world in household battery storage with major companies choosing Australia as their first market. This kind of competition is likely to cause battery storage costs to fall even more dramatically. In fact, going off-grid by installing battery storage could be cost-competitive with staying connected as early as 2018 as the price of battery storage falls.”
According to the findings, the market has the potential to grow to $24 billion.
Further, some of the biggest savings for households with solar PV are set to come from being able to store the energy they make from their solar panels but don’t use during the day.
“Currently, those householders are forced to export that energy at very low prices. With battery storage, they’ll instead be able to use it later, thereby saving themselves from having to purchase electricity during the expensive peak demand periods,” said the Climate Council’s Andrew Stock.
“Significantly, by enabling an increase in the uptake of renewable energy and electric vehicle use, battery storage can support efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and help tackle climate change.”
