The first in a series of Australian residential solar plus storage trials conducted by Japanese tech giant Panasonic and a number of local utilities has kicked off in Canberra, with the installation of an 8kWh battery system alongside a 5.2kW PV array at the home of an ActewAGL employee in Forde.
As reported in the Canberra Times, the system was installed at the family home of Rachel Turner, who jumped at the chance to be involved in the trial through her work.
The trial, announced in June, aims to test the Panasonic battery, which the company says was designed specifically for the Australian market, to be paired with solar arrays of around 5kW.
Panasonic said the system should help solar households double their rates of solar self consumption from around 30 per cent to 60 per cent, by storing excess solar output during the day for use later.
This, it says, will provide “a reliable, efficient base load for solar installed households during peak periods”.
According to ActewAGL’s Turner, first 15 systems to be installed in Canberra would be worth $15,000 each.
Turner also described the as a real game-changer.
“We have an eight kilowatt hour battery,” she said. “That is enough to run our airconditioner, lights, oven, television and whatever else is needed,” she told the Canberra Times.
As we wrote here, the Panasonic’s battery storage offering is just one among a growing number that are either already available in Australia, or targeted at the market and coming soon.
Last week, Tesla announced the first three Australian authorised resellers of its highly coveted Powerwall battery, installations of which are expected to begin in the new year.
But unlike Tesla, Panasonic is looking to sell its battery storage product only through retailers and network operators, including ActewAGL.
In June, Panasonic Australia managing director told RenewEconomy that the 8kWh system would include demand response technology and remote charge and discharge programs, which could be used by retailers and network operators.
For instance, he said, the use of a utility’s server could aggregate up to 20,000 individual solar systems, or provide a total of 40MW capacity to deal with loads at peak time.
“There is potential for them to access large volumes of energy at any particular time,” he said.
“The consumer is central to this, but if we can deliver a win, win, win situation – a win to the consumer, a win to the network, and a win to the retailer, this will be a different proposition to other off the shelf products,” he said.
ActewAGL chief executive Michael Costello told the Canberra Times that the utility wanted to see how the new technology worked with its network.
“While the grid will still play an important role in the supply of electricity, we believe the battery storage industry will continue to grow over the next few years as the technology continues to advance,” he said.
“We know the ACT community has a high awareness of climate change and the introduction of battery storage will increasingly have a positive impact on the ACT’s renewable energy targets.”
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
This post was published on December 14, 2015 2:47 pm
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If the Retailer/Utility can access the stored energy within the battery bank, they are effectively using not only the energy , but a Life cycle of the battery. Surely this would need to be properly compensated for , otherwise the home owner would install a zero feed control, so that the energy is soley for the purpose of the homeowner. I think retailers and utilities are optimistic in thinking that a home owner that has purchased a battery system , will allow the utility access to it for the normal or nominal solar Feed in tariff. I don't think consumers will be to impressed when they have produced 20kw's of Energy from solar , then stored 10 of it for the night , only to find that the utility has accessed 6 of it for Grid stabilization. I think Feed in tariff's would need to be premium FIT's for Grid stabilization purposes and shortening the life of your expensive battery system..
Spot on Paul, this would be the utility's solution not the customers solution and of course AGL will offer bugger all FIT.
Best use private installers and have control.
Surely we don't have to spend the remainder of this century fighting against rogues and thieves instead of focussing our efforts against the perils of climate change and global poverty? With a business model like you suggest, they would be bankrupt in no time at all. As Sophie writes, it is to everyone's benefit to cooperate, and to no-ones to steal, cheat and destroy. Time to build trust, not destroy it.
By Rogues and Thieves , I take it you mean the Retailers and the Utiiities & I don't think you can lump CC & Poverty into a discussion about Utilities.
John, I think you'll find there is no trust between the consumer and the Utilities, I think it is they who need to build trust and thats proven in their current broken business models , where they Gold Plated the Grid, overcapitalized, made grossly incompetent forecasts and expect the consumer now to pick up the tab - checked your service and metering fees lately & then also pay minimal FIT's now , and then onsell that to your neighbour at a premium.
I only suggest this will be worse when you may have spent thousands installing a battery storage system , only to find the Utility is accessing your energy , I stress YOUR energy for their benefit, but do not want to fairly compensate. A battery life cycle , and grid stabilization is surely a premium FIT when compared to the unwanted solar energy FIT. Seems only fair.
Yes, the retailers need to build trust. That's what I said. And they won't do that with their present selfish business model. But wouldn't it be helpful if we could all be on the same page in this global initiative and work together to solve this global problem. Changing installers won't bring change to the network.
We don't have a problem with climate change, the world has, and we all need to be mindful of the common task we all share in overcoming the pollution which has arisen from greed and is being maintained by selfishness. It is the poor, and innocent, who will suffer first and suffer most. Please don't make the mistake of thinking about this as a domestic issue.
It depends on who owns the home solar and battery installation.
The integration with the supply network could be a win for all parties as it seems to be most
efficient. It then becomes an actual distributed power station .If the network owns it, may be
cheaper than a large scale solar battery installation?
It's a good idea, as long as all parties benefit.