Australia could lead the way for home battery storage, says Climate Council report
Australia could become one of the largest markets for home battery storage allowing households to store energy from their rooftop solar panels keeping electricity costs down, a new Climate Council report has revealed.
“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."
Given the high electricity costs, large number of households with solar panels and Australia’s excellent solar resources, added battery storage could become the most economical solution to providing electricity in the near future.
“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.
“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.”
Other findings from the report included:
Half of all households in Australia are predicted to adopt solar systems with battery storage, with the market potentially growing to $24 billion.
Home battery systems can reduce household electricity costs. A household can store electricity from the grid when prices are lowest and then rely on their battery for power during the most expensive peak time, thereby minimising their overall electricity costs.
Solar PV systems with added battery storage will become the most economical solution to provide electricity.
The rapidly falling cost of batteries is expected to make electric cars cost-competitive with conventional cars within the next twenty years, leading to much greater uptake.
In Australia, battery storage in ‘behind-the-meter’ applications (such as paired with residential or commercial solar PV) is expected to undergo a similar rapid expansion to solar PV - which has grown one-hundred-fold in capacity in six years.
For those who don’t want to wait until 2018 to join the renewables revolution, there are a number of energy providers with electricity plans sourced from 100% renewable sources already available in Australia. To find out which providers offer services in your suburb visit Mozo’s free energy comparison tool.
