The Queensland Government has made an important announcement in relation to renewable energy. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced that announced that Queensland will be launching 5 new battery storage sites.
As we’ve seen in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, renewable energy captured through solar and wind is now being stored for use in large batteries.
The trial will see a collective 40MWh of energy storage, which may seem small in comparison to the 450MWh coming to Victoria, but this is just the beginning. Palaszczuk followed up her announcement tweet, saying that if the trial is successful (it will be), batteries will be rolled out in more locations, right across the state.
In Queensland, renewable energy accounts for around 20% of the state’s energy mix, as they transition away from coal-fired power stations. The Government aims to continue to increase the percentage of renewable energy to 50% by the year 2030, less than 9 years away.
While the last coal-fired power station was commissioned as recently as 2007, thankfully since then, new solar farms are exploding. The largest system in QLD is a massive 180MW at the Daydream Solar Farm, located new Collinsville and a great example of how things are changing.
Storing solar energy during the day in large, grid-scale batteries like Tesla’s MegaPacks, enables utility providers to leverage the energy when the sun isn’t shining. This directly addresses one of the biggest criticisms of the federal Government, who has not been a friend to the acceleration of renewable energy.
