Energy storage gains momentum in Australia

Canberra is ahead of the game when it comes to the biggest challenge for new energies

Energy storage is widely acknowledged as critical to the effective deployment of intermittent renewable energy, especially solar power. In Australia, the government of the ACT (Australian Capital Territory—the country's federal district) is undertaking the second-largest roll-out of household batteries in the world (after Germany), through a programme specifically aimed at boosting energy storage capacity. It is an innovative programme, in which the government has adopted a funding model that goes a step beyond simply implementing feed-in-tariffs (FIT) to support renewables. "The contract-for-difference FIT model used by the ACT to support the deployment of large-scale renewables doesn't inc