Batteries are becoming an increasingly ubiquitous piece of Australia’s clean energy transition – both in our homes and as part of our national power grid.
About one in five new solar installations now include a home battery, an increase from one in 20 in 2021, according to fresh data provided by Jeff Sykes, CEO of comparison website Solar Choice.
This has been driven by a considerable increase in the role of big batteries and a growing number of Australians turning to household batteries to store power generated by solar panels to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
For those wishing to take advantage of batteries, the good news is the price and ease of installation are making them increasingly accessible to home owners.
The benefits of batteries in urban settings
Glen Currie, who lives in a 100-year-old weatherboard house in Boroondara in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, installed a new battery when upgrading his 20-year-old 5kw solar system to a new 10kw solar system.
He installed the battery on the wall in a shady spot on the east side of his building alongside his solar inverters, thus avoiding the need for inconvenient run cables.
Currie says one of the things he enjoys about the new battery is that it comes with a phone app that allows him to check the amount of power coming into the battery daily. “We are saving up for an EV (electric vehicle) and will then be able to charge the EV with all that extra solar power,” he says.
Currie encourages people to get a battery before solar panels – that way, you can store electricity from the grid when it’s cheap and run your house off your battery when it’s more expensive.
“This is easy for your installer to do and can be set up later as well.”
Do you live in a region with an unreliable grid?
For some people, batteries have more of a purely practical application beyond wanting to reduce their carbon footprint. People in regional areas will often have to deal with inconsistent power from the grid, so having a decent battery can be a necessity.
According to Lance Turner from Renew, a not-for-profit focused on climate and energy resilience for Australian homes, there are several factors to consider before installing a battery in a home.
“It’s important to ensure that the system being installed can deliver the amount of power and energy required during outages,” he says, adding that not all batteries are capable of grid backup and some may only power critical appliances, like a refrigerator, so it is vital to ask questions.
Sykes says one of the most important considerations is ensuring you have the correct amount of solar panels to support your chosen battery. “You ideally want it to be charged from surplus solar power throughout the year, including winter with lower sunlight.”
New models making home installation easier and cheaper
Home batteries have seen slow, incremental improvements in safety, cost reduction and ease of installation as lithium-based technology has developed, according to Finn Peacock, author of the Good Solar Guide and founder of Solar Quotes website.
“The cost reduction in home batteries has been frustratingly slow, but it is starting to accelerate now,” he says.
One leading improvement Peacock identifies is the move to ‘all-in-one’ modular systems where a solar inverter is included in the battery system. This is now the best option for consumers, according to Peacock, as you don’t need to buy an extra battery right away, and they can be added in later at a fraction of the cost.
Big batteries vital for Australia’s renewable energy transition
Australia was the first country to roll out big battery technology at the Hornsdale Power reserve in South Australia, which began operating its 100MW Tesla battery in November 2017 to stabilise the energy grid and avoid blackouts.
Since then, progress has slowed, but Victoria recently announced a new $370m 100MW battery to accompany a solar farm in the state’s west. While big batteries have seen greater advancement and emergence in recent years, Sykes says that is largely because they operate on a more attractive revenue model to a home battery as they are connected to the wholesale market.
“In order for Australia to move to 100% renewables, adequate energy storage is required,” says Peacock. “While traditionally this has been done using pumped hydro systems, large scale batteries have rapidly become the system of choice for energy companies due to their rapid deployability, flexibility and rapid response times, as well as the steadily declining costs.”
