ARENA selects 3GW “sophisticated” large battery essential for 100 percent renewable power grid
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has received an overwhelming response to its offer of a $100 million grant for an ‘advanced’ grid-scale battery project, which is seen as critical to the transition to a 100 percent renewable energy grid. A shortlist of 12 projects representing capacity in excess of 3GW and 7GWh storage was completed from more than 54 proposals. ARENA said its response “far exceeded expectations,” and underlined the major development path of Australia’s large battery storage project. Funding will be provided for at least three projects and selected projects have been asked to submit full applications for their share of the funding offer, available for new and existing projects equipped with ‘advanced’ inverters. Selected projects totaled a combined $297 million of grant requests, for a total investment value of $3.7 billion. The figures suggest that ARENA’s funding could eventually support the development of approximately 1,000 MW of new battery storage capacit