WA has ranked first in the country for the number of big batteries planned or delivered.
A new report from the Climate Council, Battery Boom: Supercharging Australia’s Renewable Rollout, found WA has eight big batteries in service or commissioning stage.
Two of these are Australia’s biggest, being installed in Collie and set to begin operating later this year as the WA government progresses plans to close its last two state-owned coal-fired generators by 2029.
The Collie Battery Energy Storage System. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The upfront cost of big batteries fell 20 per cent last year and there is more than 20 gigawatts of big battery storage in the national pipeline, almost double what was planned a year ago.
The Council also reported on the future for household battery uptake, saying adding two million household batteries would collectively save Australians more than $4 billion a year on their power bills.
The top three WA areas for rooftop solar uptake were named as Mandurah (19,200 rooftop solar systems), Armadale (16,700) and Ashby (16,700).
The state government’s residential battery scheme and the federal government’s cheaper home batteries program will start by July 1.
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