Two Queensland workplace regulators are recommending that all battery storage units not be placed in either the home or the garage, and should instead be installed in a free standing, weatherproof enclosures.
The recommendations to not install battery storage in garages or sheds, and instead put them in a separate enclosure, have caused controversy in the industry, which fears that the cost of installation could rise by thousands of dollars, and are “over-reach” in the case of quality equipment.
They point out that battery storage has been installed in tens of thousands of homes in Germany, mostly in garages, and there are thousands of installations already in Australia, including in the Sydney harbourside property of prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The industry has accused authorities of being too conservative, although they recognise the risk of low cost, low quality technology with poor installation standards.
Still, they fear that the industry could be stopped in its tracks if their are effective bans or restrictions, just as the battery storage industry is tipped to take off in response to high electricity prices, the high installation of solar, and the falling costs of storage.
Network companies in Australia and retailers such as AGL Energy have announced plans to install thousands of battery storage devices in trials designed to create “virtual power plants” and save on network upgrades.
Some ask whether the ruling would effectively stop electric vehicles, laden with even bigger arrays of battery storage, from being parked in garages. Others point to the risk of liquid fuels, and wonder if stand-alone enclosures would subject battery storage to even more heat.
Revelations last week by RenewEconomy that Standards Australia was to introduce regulations that would effectively ban lithium-ion battery storage from inside homes and garages caused such a blow-back that the release date was delayed by nearly two months and the public consultation period extended to 9 weeks from 6 weeks.
The Queensland guidelines, issued last week, appear to affect all battery storage technologies, not just lithium ion.
“A BESS (battery energy storage system) should be installed outdoors in weatherproof enclosures away from any living areas, laundries and garages. The enclosure should restrict access by untrained people, children, pets or vermin,” the Electrical Safety Office writes on its website.
The guidelines say that a range of battery technologies is available in Australia – the most common being lead-acid, lithium technologies, nickel-based, flow technologies and hybrid-ion technology. “Hazards can result from overheating, over-charging and emissions from hazardous chemicals,” it says.
WorkCover Queensland, in an update from February 16, also identifies the range of battery technologies, including lead-acid (advanced, flooded-cell and sealed); lithium (ion and polymer); nickel-based (metal hydrides and cadmium); flow (zinc bromine and vanadium redox); and hybrid ion.
“We recommend that no battery parts of a BESS should be installed inside a home or building attached to a home. Instead, they should be installed in a suitable fire and weatherproof enclosure or other purpose built structure.”
Originally published on RenewEconomy. Reproduced with permission.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
This post was published on February 22, 2017 11:22 am
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Govt. trying to stall Home Power plants ? Do they want us to use more Dirty coal power ? I agree with the Lithium being pushed out side( Fire hazard) ? , but bromide flow battery (Redflow ) are safe .
99% of vehicle's parked in garages contain highly flammable and dangerous petrol in their tanks. Do they need to be parked outside too?
It is easy to see this as government pressure to keep the subsidies to the existing players in the coal / energy markets. And by government I include industry as the links between government and industry seem to be very strong in Australia.
But it may not be that at all, instead if we look at two large rollouts in recent history - insulation and the nbn - we can see that Australia's capacity for large scale workplace training and deployment is not up to these large tasks. The insulation problem was used to attack Rudd but was primarily caused through a lack of skilled installers and dodgy businesses with little concern for their workforce or the quality of their service.
For the nbn - putting aside the stupidity of the mixed model design - there are, again, clear problems with the lack of skilled installers, but also project management issues. Because we are so rich it is easy to lose site of the limits to our capacity to design implement and maintain technical projects at a national scale. (for another example, think of the problems seen with designing and implementing a payroll system for Queensland Health )
So it may be that the standards authorities are acknowledging the realities of the national capacity to install and maintain battery systems safely. The German example of high quality safe installs may not translate when you take in to account Australia's actual, rather than idealised, history.
Does this mean that I must pull out battery out of my Telsa S before it can be garaged?