On August 3rd, SUNGROW, the global champion in both inverters and energy storage systems, joined hands with Clean Energy Transfer Fund (CETF) to participate in the HIVE energy storage project, expanding into the Australian market. SUNGROW has reached a cooperation with CETF and become the main partner of HIVE Battery Developments, promoting the HIVE battery energy storage project and further amplifying Australia's green power blueprint.
CETF pushes HIVE battery pack
It is reported that HIVE is an innovative, scalable and distributed battery energy storage group, which can be easily adjusted to meet different energy storage requirements. The first HIVE battery will span 10 sites in New South Wales and seamlessly combine to provide distributed energy storage of up to 49.9 MW/200MWh. The average grid-connected coordination scale of each station is nearly 5MW, and all of them are controlled by cutting-edge virtual power station technology.
Headquartered in Australia, CETF manages assets of over a $100 million, and provides traditional and bank-financed power purchase agreements (PPA) for medium and large clean energy developers in Australia's national electricity market. This year, CETF plans to deploy hundreds of energy storage units below 5 MW across Australia and create 200 MWh HIVE battery packs, thus avoiding the long delivery time and major capital expenditure associated with grid-scale renewable energy projects.
PowerTitan becomes the core of HIVE
The core of every HIVE energy storage project is PowerTitan, the cutting-edge energy storage solution of Solar Power. PowerTitan offers cost-effectiveness, seamless installation, unparalleled operational safety, higher efficiency and longer battery cycle life. Compared with the traditional replenishment scheme, PowerTitan does not need to add PCS when replenishing battery capacity, and the 100 MWh project can reduce the related costs by 6 million. Easy installation means that HIVE batteries can be put into operation within six months, which greatly shortens the running time compared with traditional grid-scale batteries that may take more than two years to deploy. It is reported that PowerTitan has won more than 9GWh of national contracts.
Figure1: HIVE of SUNGROW
In May, SUNGROW and CHINA ENERGY ENGINEERING COPORATION formed a consortium and signed the largest independent energy storage order in South Australia. The total installed capacity of this project is 138MW/330MWh.
It is understood that Australia plans to build more than 50 clean power plants and achieve zero emission plan in 2050. According to the relevant report of Wood Mackenzie, Australia has become one of the most attractive grid-scale energy storage markets in the world, and the total installed capacity of deployed battery energy storage projects has exceeded 40GW, ranking first in the global battery energy storage market. It is estimated that by 2032, the capacity of battery energy storage system in Australia will increase by 28%.
Figure2: Image from Wood Mackenzie
System cost decreased by 18%-21%
In Australia, energy storage projects are mainly aimed at the high-value frequency control and auxiliary services (FCAS) market. At present, the mainstream in the market is the two-hour grid-scale battery energy storage system. It is understood that Australia recently reused a decommissioned thermal power project site in Latrob Valley, Victoria, for the construction of a 150MWh battery energy storage project. In April this year, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency invited the first round of letters of intent for community battery funding, amounting to 120 million Australian dollars (about 80.74 million US dollars), for the deployment of community batteries throughout Australia.
It is estimated that by 2032, the prices of lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) and NMC ternary lithium-ion batteries in Australia and South Korea will drop by more than 40%. Overall system costs will fall by between 18 and 21 percent over the next decade due to falling prices, which will be the most important driver of the reduction in capital expenditure in Australia.
Figure3: Image from Wood Mackenzie
Battery cost in Australia is 30%-40% higher than that in China
Compared with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, high battery costs will continue to be a challenge for Australia. Compared with China, the cost of battery energy storage system on the scale of Australian power grid is 30% ~ 40% higher, and it is estimated that the cost of energy storage battery in China will decrease by 50% by 2032.
Benefiting from the booming domestic supply chain, due to abundant component manufacturing and fierce market competition, the cost of battery energy storage system deployed in China will drop faster than that of any other country and region in the world. However, Australia and South Korea rely heavily on imported batteries, and Australia's labor salary is higher, which means that the cost of engineering, procurement and construction EPC is higher, which will also dilute the benefits of reducing battery energy storage costs.
At present, compared with other dispatchable power generation facilities, the power consumption cost (LCOE) of Australia's independently deployed grid-scale energy storage system is still relatively expensive. According to the survey, independent energy storage will become more cost competitive by 2032 and will weaken gas-fired power generation. The cost competitiveness of the combination of renewable energy and energy storage is expected to surpass that of coal and natural gas in 2028, which will accelerate the capacity construction of battery energy storage system in Australian market.
What are the opportunities in Australia's energy storage market?
According to the structure of Australian energy storage market in 2022, household storage companies are the main leading enterprises, while large storage companies rank lower in installed capacity, which is mainly due to the small number of large storage projects in Australia in 2022. The big storage market will change a lot in 2023.
The Australian government's bidding plan for large-scale energy storage system will be launched. On May 9, 2023, the government budget of the new Australian government came to the ground. In the next four years, the total investment allocated by the government for energy will reach 40 billion Australian dollars. The important point is the transmission network construction of 20 billion Australian dollars +4 billion Australian dollars for new energy investment and energy storage bidding budget. It is estimated that 10 billion Australian dollars (46.292 billion yuan) of new energy + energy storage investment will be released eventually. As Australia's energy storage system adopts different fixed certification standards from those in Europe and America, energy storage enterprises with complete shipments and certifications have been expected to break through in bidding, which is undoubtedly the biggest opportunity for Sunshine Power.
It is worth noting that the Australian market participants are mainly local power companies or operators, and there are few local brands of energy storage batteries, PCS and systems. Compared with European and American markets, the demand for imported PCS in Australia is higher. In the Australian market share of major brands in 2022, Sunshine, BYD and Huawei rank higher than Tesla, and Australia's recognition and dependence on overseas brands are relatively weak. Chinese energy storage enterprises have the opportunity to open up the Australian market by virtue of their technology and cost advantages.
Over 40GWh! SUNGROW Makes a Move into the Australian Energy Storage Market China.exportsemi.com
