Renewables Project Report: Storage booms but generation projects impacted by past policy uncertainty
New Clean Energy Council data has revealed a new record for investment commitments in large-scale storage projects, with 14 new projects worth over $2 billion committed in the last 12 months.
The Clean Energy Council's Q3 Renewable Projects Quarterly Report shows the 12-month rolling average of energy output from utility-scale storage reaching a record high of 1984 MWh – almost four times higher than this time last year.
These figures demonstrate a strong response from investors to the need for energy storage to support the transition to clean energy and manage the energy system, but suggest support for generation must be accelerated into the future.
“Industry confidence to invest is growing, aided by clearer and more potent policy directions across the country, but the investment trend over the past year shows that we need a sustained focus on the energy transition from all governments," Clean Energy Council Chief Executive, Kane Thornton said.
"Storage can drastically improve the transmission economics by acting as a ‘shock absorber’ that allows much more clean, low-cost renewable energy to flow across the grid to consumers."
“We need to see more projects coming more quickly through state planning systems and policy settings that send consistent signals for ongoing investment."
“Finally, we need to fix the connection and commissioning process to get projects through all the hurdles and actually start producing power. The connection process was designed years ago to account for a few hundred megawatts connecting every few years."
“This highlights the importance of accelerating the reform of the connection process to get projects connected faster. The Clean Energy Council is working collaboratively with the Australian Energy Market Operator to achieve this through the Connections Reform Initiative.”
