The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has today announced $46.3 million in funding for Round 2 of the Community Batteries Funding Program.
Building on the success of Round 1, this program aims to deploy community batteries across Australia to lower energy bills, cut emissions and reduce pressure on the electricity grid.
ARENA is now seeking applications to deploy community batteries. Projects should improve the economics of community battery projects, build industry capacity, support the integration of distributed energy resources into Australian energy markets, or demonstrate benefits of community batteries.
To be eligible for ARENA funding, each community battery must be between 50 kW and 5 MW in size and connected to the distribution network.
Community batteries provide energy storage in the distribution network that can store excess solar energy for later use, enabling higher penetrations of rooftop solar, putting downward pressure on household costs and easing pressure on local electricity grids.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said batteries are a critical part of the transition to net zero as the grid transitions to energy generated from renewable sources.
"Part of increasing our dependency on renewably sourced energy is the need to increase our firming technology to make sure the energy grid is secure and reliable. We can achieve this by storing energy in batteries when renewable energy is plentiful and use this stored energy later in the day and overnight when people most need it," said Mr Miller.
"Over recent years, a concerted effort has been made in deploying batteries to support the grid and transition to clean energy. Round 2 will build on the insights, expertise and knowledge developed in Round 1, resulting in further optimisation of distributed energy resources in the electricity grid".
As part of the 2022-23 Federal Budget, the Australian Government allocated $200 million for the Household Solar budget measure to deploy 400 community batteries across Australia.
In total, ARENA was allocated $171 million of this funding to deliver at least 342 community batteries across rounds 1 and 2.
