Antinuclear

Canberra-based renewable energy consulting company IT Power will analyse the performance of six major lithium-ion battery brands, comparing them to “old school” and advanced lead-acid batteries for use in large and small electricity grids.

A testing centre will be established at the Canberra Institute of Technology for the trials to be partially funded by $450,000 from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

T Power’s managing Director Simon Troman said storage was the next step needed to help integrate renewable energy, especially solar, into electricity grids.

“It kills the argument put out there by the anti-renewable mob that they’re intermittent and you can’t rely on them… and it turns intermittent renewables like solar and wind into a direct competitor for base-load power.

Rather than research new options for storage, Mr Troman said the trail will purchase batteries for
testing that are already commercially available making the impact more immediate and maintaining the independence of the data.

Electric car maker Tesla’s first foray into lithium-ion batteries for homes the Powerwall, announced last week featuring technology developed by Canberra start-up Reposit Power, could be part of the trials when it goes on the market.

“The idea is to look at how they perform in different environmental conditions, different charging and different loads and allow that knowledge to be out there in the public domain so people doing home systems, business-sized commercial systems or even larger have some real-world technology to look at,” Mr Troman said.

“Tesla have shown interest in being included in the trial, however they do not have their product physically available in Australia as yet.”

Mr Troman said the ability to scale battery technology up or down means the data, expected by the end of the year, would be used by many and the testing centre will be designed for new products to be easily added to the trail.

ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said there was little information about how well lithium-ion batteries could work in Australia with its hot environment and high uptake of rooftop solar.

“For a large project they would go to tender… they are going to find the best solution at the best price for their application, but that’s not going to be quite so easy for an individual homeowner,” he said.

“So part of the outcome we hope to achieve from this is provide information for the general public as to what sort of solutions will work best for them.”

The announcement of the trial comes just days after the ACT government called for expressions of interest for its 50MW next generation solar farm to include storage.

Mr Troman said long-term data from the trial would be too late for the ACT project, but companies wanting to bid for the farms were likely to seek advice from experts involved in the testing.

Mr Frischknecht said ARENA was keen to support the hub of renewable energy expertise beginning to become established in Canberra.

Mr Troman said Canberra’s growing international reputation for renewable energy would mean people would respect data that came from the trial.

While the renewable energy industry has been marred by negativity in recent years, Mr Troman said the federal government would be unable to stop it progress.

“From a business point of view it’s still pretty hard because you can go broke every other week when the government says something and suddenly half your projects disappear because someone gets cold feet, but if we can hold out through this period the future will be bright,” he said.

The three-year trial will begin later this year and is expected to wrap up in June 2018.http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/battery-trial-could-kill-antirenewable-energy-argument-20150508-ggv7ms.html