Battery Storage Laws under fire

The solar battery storage industry is currently locked in a fierce battle with Standards Australia to halt new battery storage laws which would severely impact the uptake of residential battery storage in Australia. The draft regulations have been released and are now being discussed throughout the industry.

Battery Storage Laws

The main problem is that there aren’t currently any Standards Australia regulations for domestic battery installations – something that obviously needs to be identified and managed. The Clean Energy Council (CEC) already released a set of industry rules in 2016 which limit home batteries to ‘a dedicated equipment room or battery room’ – advising that installers need to be wary of ventilation, extreme temperatures, and ensure they don’t install in ‘habitable rooms’ e.g. bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens. The CEC’s rules, however, did include an exemption for ‘all in one’ battery and inverter control systems.

Battery Storage Laws - Standards Australia
Draft Battery Storage Laws – Standards Australia (source: standards.org.au)

Standards Australia have released a draft of their regulations for in-house energy storage – and they are far more draconian:

  • Lithium ion batteries will be classed as ‘fire hazard class 1’ and must not be installed inside a domestic dwelling, within a metre of any access or egress area or under any part of a domestic dwelling.
  • Lithium ion batteries will need to be housed in a 3x2m fire shelter with eaves.
  • Consumer groups and the solar battery storage industry have until August 15 to challenge these recommendations.

Dr. Bronwyn Evans,  the CEO of Standards Australia, was quoted in the Australian as saying the draft report is a “comprehensive document” created as “the result of many hours of work from experts representing industry, government and community interests”. They’ve been labelled as ‘over-zealous’ by the CEC.

CEC chief executive Kane Thornton said: “Consumer safety is our first priority, and there is nothing to suggest that this requirement would do anything other than throw up unnecessary barriers and red tape around an industry which is poised to make a big contribution to energy security across the country.”

It seems that these very strict draft recommendations have been put in place in an attempt to mitigate a repeat of the Rudd Government’s Energy Efficient Homes Package program (more specifically, the Home Insulation Program ‘stream’ of this package) in 2010, which was a failure on myriad fronts and also resulted in the deaths of four workers in four separate incidents.

There’s no doubt that we need to be careful and ensure the safety of households with storage and also make sure they’re safe for installers/repairers – but this needs to be managed responsibly, not with knee-jerk and unnecessarily over regulated reactions.

Access Standards Australia’s public comment portal to leave your comment on the new rules by clicking here.

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Solar Power in Australia reaches 3.2% in 2016

The Clean Energy Council released figures on Tuesday that show Australians’ energy needs were powered by renewables to the tune of 17.3% in 2016 – the highest since Snowy Hydro was completed 50 years ago. 3.16% of this 17.3% renewable energy was from solar power in Australia – a massive jump of 29% from 2015. According to RenewEconomy, it’s expected to grow considerably in both small and large scale solar PV production – putting us well on track to reach our Renewable Energy Targets (RET) for 2020.

Solar Power in Australia

Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton advised that 10 major wind and solar farm projects were completed in 2016 and there are 20 more in the pipeline; he’s confident that we’ll reach our RETs with time to spare.

“Every month brings new project announcements. While total investment in large-scale renewable energy was $2.56 billion last year, $5.20 billion worth of projects have secured finance in just the first five months of 2017 and have either started construction or will begin this year,” Thornton said.

“Innovation continues right across the renewable energy supply chain and new technologies such as energy storage are beginning to get their time in the sun,” he was also quoted as saying. We assume the pun was intended.

Solar Power in Australia 2017
Solar Power in Australia 2017

The Australian Renewable Energy Target 2020

Some more takeaway statistics from the report:

  • Renewable energy provided 17.3% of all Australia’s energy in 2016 – up from 14.6% in 2015.
  • 6,750 battery systems were installed in 2016, 13 times the number installed in 2015.
  • Hydro is still far and away the biggest contributor to Australia’s renewable energy, comprising 42.3% of the total amount.
  • In 2017, building a renewable energy plant is now cheaper than coal and gas-fired power plants.
  • About half of the projects already underway or set to commence in 2017 are for large-scale solar, due to price per kWh nearly halving in the last two years.
  • Approximately 17,500 GWh of renewable energy was created in 2016 – as the Renewable Energy Target is 33,000GWh we still have a way to go but progress is looking positive.
  • Large scale solar is almost 50% of its cost two years ago and is slated to play a huge part in reaching our RET in 2020.

Click here to read the Clean Energy Australia Report 2016 in full at the CEC website.

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