Redflow NEWS & EVENTS, page-1408

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Earlier this year the Federal government through ARENA allocated $171 million to support community battery proposals. They were swamped with eligible submissions, which totalled $1.3 billion (a further $2.2 billion of proposals were apparently ineligible). They are working through the first pile now with more to come.

So Gotheflow has the right idea and the government knows about it, but as sjl points out there is a lot of adjusting to do at the local distribution network level to transform these networks into mini-grids. This is much easier and cheaper than hitching up a huge, remote solar farm to a high-voltage national grid as Gotheflow points out. A stand-alone system with a battery capacity of 274 kWh and its own solar array was opened in the country town f Yackandandah in 2021. So far as I know, the first functioning inner urban community battery project, utilising household solar panels, is in Fitzroy North in Melbourne, which began operation last year prior to the ARENA grants scheme. It has a capacity of 284kWh/150kW. Not Redflow though: lithium-ion batteries. Let's hope they don't catch fire! And let's hope Bowen & co. rapidly shift $1 billion or more from mega-projects into more local projects like this. And let's hope Tim H can flog a lot more batteries for Aussie use.