World news – Battery consumption is booming during the coronavirus when clean energy gains momentum

Australia’s adoption of household battery systems rose 20 percent last year despite the economic downturn. This is a sign that the transition from fossil fuels to renewables is accelerating.

Contrary to predictions of a pandemic-triggered slump, installers have reported 31,000 new batteries across Australia in 2020, making the total number of small batteries of the country that store electricity from solar panels and on a utility scale. bigâ ???? Batteries to 110,000.

« It’s been a surprisingly good year for battery systems in Australia, » said Warwick Johnston of the consultancy SunWiz, who conducted the market analysis for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

« Home battery systems were proving to be in South Australia especially popular where the demand from homeowners is so high that the state government had to cut its subsidies to avoid overheating the market. « 

The South Australians led the battery boom last year with 26 percent of all installations in 2020 . Victoria (25 percent) and New South Wales (24.7 percent) followed closely.

In Victoria, household solar batteries were so popular that government subsidies were exhausted within minutes of each release. A situation that was only resolved when the government directed COVID stimulus funding into the sector. Mr Johnston said.

Australia has one of the highest solar radiation rates on the roof in the world. Domestic-scale solar power grew 30 percent nationwide last year, adding 3.5 gigawatts. The total number of solar panels on the roof now exceeds 2.5 million.

After an initial slump in solar panel and battery sales at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the country’s leading electric utilities and installers were confident that the decline was only would be short-lived as customers spent more time at home and at home looking for ways to keep rising residential energy bills under control.

« It makes perfect sense, » said John Grimes, executive director of the Clean Energy Council , who represents 1000 renewable energy and battery companies.

« People work from home so they are very aware of their electricity bills, but they also have more time to actually research the technology. » </ With the pandemic disrupting Australian everyday life in unprecedented ways, rooftop solar and battery storage also offered consumers a "sense of control," he added . "That is being played into those numbers as well."

In the global transition from polluting fossil fuels, battery technology is becoming a key to supporting increased renewable uptake by overcoming the problem of disruption when it is not sunny or windy is. Batteries can absorb and store excess electricity generated at times when renewable energy conditions are most favorable.

Top Australian electricity company AGL said batteries would play an important role in reducing grid pressures since Renewable energies continue to grow.

Travis Hughes, AGL’s Director of Distributed Energy Resources, said his virtual power plant â ???? That combines hundreds or thousands of households with solar and batteries to manage demand and energy flows. had expanded in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

« We believe that virtual power plant technology will be an important part of the power system for the next decade, along with grid-scale batteries that provide the solidifying capacity that Australia needed for the transition to a cleaner energy future.  » ??? he said.

In 2021, SunWiz predicts an additional 33,000 home battery systems and an increase in grid-scale battery storage.

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