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| Mon, 16th Nov 2020 11:21:00 |
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AGL long-duration battery planned for Adelaide marks another leap for renewables |
The 250MW battery will provide power for four hours, supporting evening peak demand, and is not subsidised by state or federal governments
The announcement of a large, long-duration battery in Adelaide has been hailed as a milestone in the developing technology that is competing with fossil fuels to support wind and solar energy.
The energy company AGL, which owns several coal plants and is Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, announced on Monday it would build a large-scale battery on the site of the Torrens Island gas station, which is due to shut by 2022.
It said the battery would be built in stages and have an eventual power capacity of up to 250 megawatts - greater than an existing battery at Hornsdale in South Australia, but less than a 300MW facility planned for a site near Geelong.
The AGL development differs markedly from existing and other proposed Australian batteries in having a storage capacity of 1,000 megawatt-hours, which equates to a duration of up to four hours.
Existing batteries in Australia are used to bolster the security of the grid when something goes wrong, such as a major transmission line being taken out or a power station “tripping”. They are able to rapidly fill the gap to prevent the grid collapsing.
The AGL battery would be the first in the country specifically designed to store energy generated when the sun is shining or the wind blowing and release it into the grid when electricity use reaches a peak.
The company’s decision is noteworthy for having been made without government support or intervention, unlike other recent proposals for gas, battery and pumped hydro projects backed by the federal government and other states.
AGL’s chief executive, Brett Redman, said the company was “getting on with the business of energy transition”.
“This battery is another step in the state’s energy transition, while at the same time allowing a rapid response to changes in renewable generation when our customers and communities need it,” he said.
He said the Torrens Island battery was part of a plan to build 850MW of energy storage capacity by 2023-24.
Battery technology has taken off more rapidly than was predicted. An Australian Energy Market Operator forecast in 2016 suggested the country might have only 4MW of large-scale batteries by 2020, and build no more than that before 2036.
A report released earlier this month said the country already had 287MW in operation or committed to construction. That does not include the Victorian government announcement of the 300MW battery near Geelong, billed as one of the biggest in the world.
Simon Holmes à Court, a senior adviser to the Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University, said the Torrens Island battery was a significant milestone, as the company could have opted for a new gas-fired plant.
“It is the first battery that is competing with gas generators in Australia, and it’s completely unsubsidised,” he said. “This will be moving solar from the middle of the day to the evening, when demand is at its peak.”
The South Australian government said it would support the battery by granting a planning exemption. The energy minister, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, said it would help “restore the grid to strength” and meet its aspirational goal of net-100% renewable energy.
South Australia has generated 57% of its electricity from renewable sources over the past year.
The Morrison government argues that new gas-fired power plants are essential for the reliability and security of the national grid as variable wind and solar replaces ageing coal-fired power plants.
It plans to underwrite up to five new “fast-start” gas plants and six pumped hydro plants, and has said the government-owned Snowy Hydro would build an additional gas generator in New South Wales to help replace AGL’s outgoing Liddell coal plant if the private sector has not made an equivalent commitment by April. The latter proposal was announced as part of its promised “gas-led” recovery from the economic shock caused by Covid-19.
Earlier this year the market operator found additional gas-fired power was an option, but not essential, for an electricity grid increasingly based on renewable energy, and gas prices would need to stay at lower levels than expected if it was to compete with pumped hydro, batteries and other alternatives.
Gas is often described as having half the emissions of coal when burned, but recent studies have suggested that underestimates its impact on the climate.
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