The burgeoning residential battery storage market in Australia has been boosted further by a multi-million dollar investment by the country’s largest publicly traded energy retailer AGL Energy Ltd.
AGL agreed to invest $20 million into US firm Sunverge’s lithium-ion Solar Integration System (SIS), a second generation.
The SIS combines advanced lithium batteries with a control platform that allows power to flow to and from the grid as part of a virtual power plant.
The AGL investment comes on top of £7 million already put in to Sunverge by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), Siemens Venture Capital (SBCVC) and Total Energy Ventures International.
“This will help Sunverge establish operations in Australia and overcome barriers to the widespread deployment of storage systems,” said ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht.
“Residential battery storage is currently in its infancy in Australia. While only a small number of systems are currently installed, there is a lot of interest in the technology.
“The partnership between AGL and Sunverge will accelerate the roll-out of a state-of-the art grid-integrated battery storage solution to Australia’s large household storage market.”
Home storage system makers are lining up to get their products into the Australian market.
Queensland-based Energex installed the country’s first Tesla Powerwall in January along with one of Sunergy’s storage systems.
And in February, Brisbane firm Redflow announced it would be launching its residential energy storage system – backed by its zinc bromine battery – in March, with the first installations expected for June.
