Daniel Wolfram
A clean energy revolution in Australia is on the brink of going global.
Currently, there is a lot of bad news regarding climate change, especially during the ‘Super’ El Niño that has caused drought and now a very wet autumn across the world.
It can be an avalanche of worsening news. And while it is part of our journalistic integrity here at Dagens.com to report the news as it happens, it is also important to remember the other side of the climate story.
Take Australia, for example, where the country has revolutionized household batteries.
Powering the future
According to a report by The Guardian, Australia is undergoing a massive shift toward residential energy storage. Local workers have connected around 415,000 units since July. That averages out to roughly one battery unit for every 25 Australian homes.
Industrial-scale batteries are also expanding at a rapid rate across the country, trailing only China and the United States in capacity.
Tristan Edis, a director with consultancy Green Energy Markets, highlighted the swift adoption. “It’s amazing,” Edis told The Guardian. “It shows again that if you go big with a technology, and you kick it off big from the start, you can make a really significant difference.”
Taming evening surges
For years, critics argued that solar power was far too unpredictable after sunset.
Australian engineers found out that batteries solve that problem. By storing excess solar generation throughout the day, homeowners can tap into cheap power during peak evening hours.
In Australia, gas-fired electricity generation dropped 24% over the summer compared to last year. Tennant Reed, climate change and energy director with the Australian Industry Group, said it has “completely changed how electricity prices are formed.”
Australia had to think outside the box to get electricity prices down. Through a taxpayer-funded rebate program with $2.3 billion committed over a four-year period, the transformation was immediate as costs were trimmed by 30% with over 1,000 installations happening each day.
A global shift in energy
This energy shift is starting to extend beyond Australian shores.
Dave Jones, an energy analyst at Ember, explained that grid-scale batteries have collapsed in price while performance has soared. “Home batteries are in the middle of a revolution,” Jones told The Guardian.
While some governments are trying to combat renewable energy, the numbers show that people are adopting this method started by the Australians as equipment costs continue to fall and the power is becoming more reliable.
