Proposed solar plant to store power in shipping container-sized batteries


Proponents of a $300-million solar battery power plant in outback South Australia believe they have enough backing to turn the plan into a reality.

The project in Roxby Downs would include about 800,000 solar panels connected to shipping container-sized batteries, which have the ability to manage and store power.

Proposed by the Lyon Group, it is the only South Australian project vying for the next round of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Its investors are confident they will be able to get the funds for it to go ahead and said it would be a big step towards creating base load renewable energy.

"The large-scale batteries allow us to manage that power in a more stable manner," Lyon Solar partner David Green said.

"The larger the batteries and the more batteries we include, the closer it comes to base load.

"For governments to achieve their aspirational targets they're establishing for renewable energy, we have to overcome this issue of turning renewable into stable, base load-type power."

He said stage one of the project would create a 20-megawatt power plant, with minimum two megawatt battery storage, but stage two would expand that to 100 megawatts with minimum 20 megawatt batteries.

"That's about the equivalent of 4,000 Telsa home battery storage modules," Mr Green said.
It is hoped the construction will begin early next year, creating about 100 jobs in the building phase then a handful of ongoing positions.

South Australia currently has the highest electricity prices in the country, with prices soaring due to a reliance on interstate power and increased prices set by energy companies.

Over the past six years electricity providers have been criticised for heavy investment in infrastructure upgrades, or so-called "gold plating", which are considered a major factor in driving up average household electricity bills.

The impact of network charges on electricity bills have been investigated in two federal Senate inquires since 2012, both of which heard allegations that severe regulatory failure had led to massive overspending on electricity infrastructure and costs were being passed down to consumers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-23/solar-plant-to-store-power-in-shipping-con...

There are good things not far in the future in the way of power storage.

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