South Australia’s Labor government has announced a $1.1 million tender to install battery storage in several key government buildings, including parliament house and its flagship arts buildings in the North Terrace precinct.
In what is being billed as a first in Australia for a state government, tenders are being called for battery storage to be installed in up to nine government buildings that already have solar arrays, including Parliament House, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the state museum, the state library, a railway station and various schools.
The initiative follows that of the City of Adelaide last week, which became the first in local government group Australia to offer financial incentives to households and businesses to install battery storage systems.
“Battery energy storage is an emerging global market, and storage systems offer particular benefits when combined with solar photovoltaics allowing for solar generation to be better matched to the building’s energy demands,” Adelaide’s energy minister Tom Koutsantonis said in a statement.
“With a high uptake of renewables in South Australia, including rooftop solar, South Australia is well positioned to be a strong ‘early market’ for battery storage systems.”
South Australia currently sources around 7 per cent of its energy demand from rooftop solar, and overall nearly 40 per cent from the combination of large-scale wind and small-scale solar.
The state is also looking to build Australia’s, and quite possibly the world’s, largest non-hydro energy storage installation at one of three locations to balance the output of its variable renewable sources.
Koutsantonis notes that the state government owns 150 buildings in the Adelaide CBD, many of these already with rooftop solar, and battery storage could help meet their demand profiles and cut energy costs.
“Through this exciting project, the State Government will be demonstrating how integrating battery storage with solar photovoltaics can deliver multiple benefits of greenhouse gas reduction, energy load management and energy cost reductions,” he said.
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