Australia’s first shared community battery
Australia’s solar sector is steadily growing and has reached an installed photovoltaic capacity of 16.3 GW in 2019. This resulted in Australia (600 watts/capita) overtaking Germany (580 watts/capita) in the highest per capita solar capacity in the world. Japan follows in third place with 500 watts per capita [1].
The Australian solar market has a remarkably high share of rooftop PV systems compared to many other leading countries. More than one in four free-standing households have a PV system on their roof. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, 333,978 new rooftop PV systems with a capacity of 2.6 GW were installed in 2020 which is an increase of about 18% compared to the previous year [2].
Nevertheless, fossil fuels still contributed to 79% of Australian electricity generation in 2019 [3] and new fossil fuel projects and fracking activities by large companies are still being approved by the government [4] even against widespread local opposition.
Sometimes, however, such opposition movements against large fossil fuel projects are successful and even spark a complete rethinking of the local electricity production in the community.
This was also the case in Bentley, New South Wales where the first community-owned electricity retailer in Australia emerged after a successful movement against a big multinational fracking project in 2016. Enova was established as a social enterprise backed by 1,600 community investors with the aim to change and localize Australia’s energy system in a sustainable way.
Enova returns half of its profits back into the communities to support community-based renewable energy projects, energy efficiency measures, and educational activities. The social enterprise relies especially on innovative ideas and digital transformation to disrupt the current electricity sector and to achieve a lasting change. Enova, for example, launched a Microgrid pilot project in Byron Bay and Australia’s first solar garden which allows people without a suitable rooftop for PV sysyems to also participate in the energy transition.
Enova’s newest pilot project, which is partly funded by the NSW Government [5], is centered around the idea of a shared community battery paired with an online peer-to-peer electricity trading platform. The so-called Beehive Project will give 500 households with and without rooftop solar PV systems access to the community battery in the initial stage.
The project is called ‘The Beehive Project’ because of its resemblance to a beehive where the bees are the households that produce and consume solar energy, the honey is the solar energy being stored and shared, the honeycomb is the peer-to-peer electricity trading platform and finally, the queen bee is the large shared community battery.
Especially, the concept of the shared community battery is interesting and innovative. The large-scale battery is not connected to a wind or solar farm as it is often the case, but it is designed to be the centerpiece of storing and distributing electricity within a local community. It ensures that the produced electricity by small-scale prosumers stays in the community and it also offers individual households an alternative to installing their own home energy storage system.
A 1.07 MW Tesla Megapack battery with 2.14 MWh of capacity will be installed as the ‘queen bee’ for the pilot project. The battery is the size of a shipping container and will be installed in Kurri Kurri in New South Wales [6]. Thanks to the smart technology the participants do not have to be geographically located near the battery though.
Since batteries are a key component of the digital transformation, it is important to find innovative solutions to help as many people as possible to gain access to this technology. A shared community battery shows an interesting approach to achieve this goal.
References:
[1] https://iea-pvps.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NSR_Australia-2019.pdf
[3] https://www.energy.gov.au/data/electricity-generation
[4] https://reneweconomy.com.au/fracking-hell-gas-and-coal-projects-march-on-across-australia-12605/
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Text by Christian Doedt
