South Australia‘s Retailer Feed-in Tariff (RFiT) will increase from the 2015 rate of 5.3c/kWh to 6.8c/kWh for the duration of 2016, according to a report from the Essential Services Commission […]
Tag: batteries
Why Australia is fertile ground for home battery storage (Q&A with Enphase cofounder Raghu Belur – Part 3)
Solar Choice: Enphase is known mainly for its world-leading microinverters. What spurred the company to get involved in the energy storage market, and why did it choose Australia as the […]
The evolving role of the solar home on the electricity grid (Interview with Enphase cofounder Raghu Belur – Part 1)
I had the opportunity to catch up with Enphase Energy co-founder Raghu Belur at Australian Utility Week following a panel discussion about distributed renewable energy integration in which he took […]
Australia’s Redback aims to sell 28,000 home battery systems by 2019
Australian home energy storage technology developer Redback has signed an exclusive distribution agreement that will see 28,000 of the company’s SH4600 Smart Hybrid System units sold in Australia and New […]
Reposit Power’s GridCredits: Trade your home’s energy on the grid – and get paid for it
No feed-in tariff? No problem: Reposit Power’s GridCredits software lets solar-plus-storage system owners sell power into the grid – at a premium. Reposit Power is an Australian company whose goal […]
Approaches to grid-connected energy storage systems: Q&A with Supply Partners
Home battery energy storage is on track to become commonplace in Australia by the end of the decade, just as rooftop solar power is now. The industry is still young, […]
The Australian solar home in 2025 (Australian Utility Week Roundup Part 2)
Things are changing fast when it comes to electricity in Australia, and Australian Utility Week 2015 (‘the year of the digital utility’) was a great place to catch a glimpse […]
[WATCH] Home solar battery storage in the mainstream media
The topic of home energy storage has made its way into some of the biggest media outlets in Australia, with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald running identical pieces in their respective “Money” sections, along […]
Battery storage already competitive with fossil fuels – in the right circumstances: Report
A new report from US investment bank Lazard says battery storage is already competitive in some situations – particularly at the utility scale and in providing services such as frequency […]
Battery storage systems to be allowed to export energy in WA from December
The Australian electricity industry is being “Uber’d” by battery storage technology, according to comments from West Australian energy minister Mike Nahan, a process he predicts will fundamentally change the nature […]
Magellan Power supplies 100kWh battery storage system for Variable Speed Drive (VSD) application in Sydney
Magellan Power, an Australian developer of energy storage and other power technology solutions, has recently provided a 100kWh commercial-scale DC energy storage system for a water pumping application in NSW in […]
Australian Energy Market Operator network planning document anticipates mass uptake of solar + storage
The Australian Energy Market Operator has adapted its network planning to take into account a rapid uptake of rooftop solar, battery storage and electric vehicles. In its 2015 National Transmission […]
Brisbane’s Redflow pitches flow batteries to mining operations
Brisbane-based battery maker Redflow has called on miners to ditch diesel generation in favour of increasingly competitive renewable energy and large-scale energy storage, as part of a campaign targeting Australia’s […]
Check out Solar Choice’s new energy storage resource
Solar Choice has published a new resource for those interested in battery-based energy storage systems. Our new page, “Batteries & Home Energy Storage: Learn the Basics“, collects many of the […]
With demand for Tesla’s Powerwall ‘very strong’ in Australia, Gigafactory construction accelerated
Demand in Australia for the battery storage products of US electric vehicle developer Tesla has been described as “very strong” by the company, ahead of the arrival here of the […]
Solar projects win a quarter of Chilean renewables contracts at auction
Solar was a big winner at Chile’s latest energy auction, making up one-quarter of the all-renewable bids awarded 20-year contracts to supply 1,200GWh to the Chilean electricity market from 2017. […]
German network can handle ‘huge amounts’ of solar-plus-storage – with no negative effects
Germany’s electricity network could support “huge amounts” of solar and storage without any negative impact, but rather to the overall benefit of the grid, a new study has found. The […]
Enphase Energy’s ‘AC Battery’: A modular, expandable energy storage solution for Australian homes
Enphase Energy, a US-based energy technology company and the world’s largest manufacturer of microinverters, has recently announced that Australia will be the launching pad for its groundbeaking AC Battery, which […]
Proposed changes to SA retail tariffs could have dire implications for rooftop solar uptake
The uptake of rooftop solar in South Australia could be halved over the next five years if a change in the state’s electricity tariffs proposed by SA Power Networks is […]
WA’s energy minister to roll back anti-battery regulations “within the month”
An energy market regulation that effectively bans homes in Western Australia with battery storage from feeding power back into the grid will be removed within a month, the state’s energy […]
Half of Aussie homes could have solar-plus-batteries by 2025: Climate Council
A new report by the Climate Council has predicted that half of all households in Australia will wind up installing solar with battery storage, with the market potentially growing to […]
Adelaide-based thermal energy storage developer wins $400k federal grant
The Adelaide-based company behind a patented, sand-based thermal energy storage system has won a $400,000 federal government grant to help launch it onto the international market. Latent Heat Storage (LHS) […]
SolarEdge’s StorEdge energy storage solution to be compatible with Powerwall
Israeli inverter company SolarEdge has targeted Australia as a key market for solar and storage technologies, thanks to its world-leading rooftop PV penetration, reduction in feed-in tariffs and high electricity […]
Home solar battery storage in Adelaide, SA
South Australia has a higher percentage of solar homes than any other state in Australia – and in the Adelaide area, roughly 1 in every 3 homes has a solar PV […]
Federal environment minister: battery storage & off-grid living ‘clearly the future’
Federal environment minister Greg Hunt has repeated his vow to help accelerate the deployment of battery storage in Australia, after describing it as “inevitable” that significant numbers of consumers would […]
Solar changing electricity demand patterns, could reduce need for network investment
A new report by Morgan Stanley analysts has illustrated how increasing amounts of rooftop solar on Australian networks is changing patterns of energy demand, and could mean networks will be […]
Intelligent, flexible all-in-one home energy storage from Alpha ESS
Alpha-ESS is a global developer of energy storage systems for the home. The company was founded in 2012 as a collaboration between companies from three continents and is looking to […]
AllGrid Energy’s Aussie-made residential & off-grid battery storage devices
Note: Solar Choice is not a solar installer and has no financial or other incentives to promote any product brand over another. Background on Aoboet – Company History AllGrid Energy […]
WA Aboriginal corporation goes off-grid with 100kW solar + 70kWh storage
A WA not-for-profit that provides essential services to remote Aboriginal communities in the Pilbara has successfully gone off-grid, after installing a 100kW solar plant with 70kWh of battery storage. The […]
Could Turnbull follow the pro-solar example set by WA energy minister Nahan?
If new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull needs guidance on how to get his more conservative Coalition members to embrace change in the energy market, he might use the example of […]
Could Aussie homes find it more economical to go off-grid? New analysis suggests ‘yes’
In the emerging new energy landscape, the idea that a large number of households could quit the grid altogether, using rooftop solar and battery storage, is still considered an unlikely […]