The 240MW/480MWh BESS project will be located to the east of South Australian capital Adelaide, in a strategically selected site in the Murraylands region of the state. While the DC BESS solution’s duration is planned at 2-hour, that could be increased if market dynamics enable it, the companies said.

Scheduled for delivery in 2025 if it goes ahead, the battery system will charge with surplus renewable energy generated at off-peak times and discharge it to support the grid in South Australia and neighbouring Victoria when demand peaks.

The case for energy storage in the region is strong: recent analysis from Rystad Energy found the National Electricity Market (NEM), which Victoria and South Australia are connected to, has the highest levels of volatility in terms of price fluctuations among nearly 40 different electricity markets globally.

Battery storage could help with that. More locally, at 70%, South Australia has the highest level of renewable penetration on its grid of anywhere excepting small islands, Energy-Storage.news heard from expert Prof Bruce Mountain of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) this week.

The site spoke to Prof Mountain just a few days after the Australian Commonwealth government launched the expanded Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), through which significant dispatchable renewable energy resources including storage will be tendered for.

South Australia: Highest level of renewables in the world

“South Australia has a higher penetration of wind and solar as a proportion of its mix than any other electricity markets, other than small island ones, anywhere. Much higher than Denmark, much higher than Ireland,” Mountain said.

In integrating that renewable energy and enabling the proportion to go even higher, batteries are really the “only plausible” technology, according to the VEPC expert.

Mountain noted also that while the Capacity Investment Scheme was originally envisaged a year-and-a-half ago as a sort of ‘de facto’ energy storage target or strategy to encourage private investment in storage with public backing, alongside the buildout of solar PV and wind that was already ongoing, this dynamic has flipped.

The ability of private companies like Shell Energy to go ahead with a new 200MW/400MWh BESS without seeking subsidies, for example, or developers in New South Wales (NSW) to bid in a state tender for firming capacity at very low levels of financial support, were testament to that, he said.

The business case for solar and wind variable renewable energy (VRE) however, has become more challenging, with the market effectively making the growth of utility-scale VRE a victim of its own success and a slowing of development.

“I think the storage providers seem to be willing to take their chances on the spot market… [there are] many settlement periods at prices that are negative or less and we still see gas at the margin in the evening, and probably will for quite a long time hence. So I think they are seeing in the spot market these arbitrage margins, so the level of policy support that they’re after is much lower.

“Whereas the wind and solar, they don’t see much; solar sees nothing from when gas is at the margin and the wind sees a little bit from when gas is at the margin, but they see plenty from when solar is at the margin. So things have been getting harder for them,” Mountain told Energy-Storage.news.

CIP, which is perhaps best known for its prolific investments in offshore wind, said its plan for Summerfield in South Australia aligns with the state’s energy transition roadmap, implying the project may seek success in forthcoming CIS tenders, which are due for launch in December and set to be held jointly with the state of Victoria.

Canadian Solar meanwhile said e-Storage, a subsidiary of the vertically integrated solar PV company’s manufacturing division, CSI Solar, would be supplying its SolBank BESS technology. SolBank uses liquid cooled lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, along with other features like active cell balancing and fire safety systems with multiple levels of protection.

Canadian Solar said e-Storage was also selected by CIP as preferred provider for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operations and maintenance (O&M) duties in addition to supplying the complete BESS solution.

CIP’s other projects in Australia include a solar, wind and green hydrogen project in Queensland the investor acquired in late 2022.

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Sunil Rathi

Waaree Energies has supplied 850 MW solar PV modules so far for projects in the U.S. being developed by Acciona Energia as part of an ongoing partnership. 

Waaree delivered its monocrystalline passivated emitter and rear cell panels to four Acciona Energia projects: 56 MW in Fort Bend, Texas; 129 MW in High Point, Ill.; 288 MW in Union, Ohio and 375 MW in Texas’ Red Tailed Hawk Solar projects. With these deliveries, Waaree has supplied more than 4 GW of solar modules to U.S. customers this year.   

The companies also entered a three-year agreement in which Waaree will supply another 1.5 GW of solar modules to Acciona for additional U.S. projects through 2026. Under the deal terms, Waaree Energies will supply Acciona with a total delivery of 2.34 GW of its N-type TOPCON modules, says the company.

“We are delighted to be a trusted partner to Acciona Energia. With successful deliveries of solar PV modules for projects such as High Point, Fort Bend, Union and Red Tailed Hawk, Waaree Energies Limited has established itself as one of the reliable solar modules suppliers operating in the U.S. market,” says Waaree’s Sunil Rathi.

“We are thrilled to announce the successful completion of a significant milestone in our partnership with Waaree Energies,” adds Rafael Mateo Alcalá, CEO of Acciona Energía. 

“This collaboration has been pivotal in achieving the supply of 850 MW solar PV modules for Acciona Energia’s major projects in the United States. Waaree’s commitment to excellence is evident in the delivery of its high-performance. This achievement not only underscores the strength of our collaboration but also reinforces our dedication to advancing sustainable energy solutions.”

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Paul Gaynor

Longroad Energy, a U.S.-based renewable energy developer, owner and operator, has closed $600 million in debt financing to continue growing its wind, solar and battery portfolio. 

The financing is composed of a $275 million term loan, a $175 million revolving credit facility and a $150 million letter of credit facility.  The new financing follows last year’s $500 million equity investment by Infratil, New Zealand Superfund and MEAG, which marked Longroad’s shift toward primarily project ownership rather than project sales.

“This additional capital will fuel the expansion of our owned operational fleet to more than 9 GW by 2027, and support our robust 30 GW pipeline of development projects,” says Paul Gaynor, CEO of Longroad.  “We appreciate the continued confidence of our investors and banking partners in Longroad’s platform and execution.  We are excited to welcome and thankful for the institutions who have come into this new financing.”

The syndicated corporate credit facility was led by Apterra infrastructure capital, a platform company of Apollo and joint lead arrangers Barclays and HSBC.

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Jørn Hammer

Canadian Solar’s  e-STORAGE, part of the company’s CSI Solar subsidiary, has been selected as the preferred supplier by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to deliver its Summerfield battery storage project.

The Summerfield battery storage project is a 240 MW DC energy storage solution, currently sized at a two-hour storage duration but is expandable depending on market needs. It is the first multiple large-scale battery project spearheaded by CIP in Australia. The project is scheduled for installation in 2025 and will incorporate e-STORAGE’s SolBank battery technology.

The battery system will accumulate surplus energy during periods of low demand and distribute power back to the grid during peak consumption phases, says the company. The Summerfield Battery is situated in the Murraylands region to the east of Adelaide in South Australia and is set to serve the region as well as the broader national energy grid.

e-STORAGE will deliver its battery energy storage systems and provide integration, commissioning and long-term operational services for the project. Is SolBank technology includes a self-manufactured battery designed for utility-scale applications, based on lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry.

“We are pleased to work with Canadian Solar to deliver a new large-scale battery in South Australia. The Summerfield Battery will help to ensure continued energy reliability and unlock new renewable capacity,” says CIP’s Jørn Hammer.

“We are deeply honored to collaborate with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Flagship Fund as they endeavor to expand battery storage solutions in Australia. Together, we understand the pivotal role that battery storage systems play in achieving a sustainable future and we are engaged in making a difference in the renewable industry,” adds Colin Parkin, e-STORAGE president. 

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Michael Stein

Sunlight Energy Investments has purchased 12 operating solar arrays in Ohio and Michigan from the project developer.

The arrays, with an aggregate rating of 9.4 MW DC, supply power to on-site school facilities. Their production is covered under direct, long-term fixed-price solar PPAs. The sale also provides Sunlight Energy, a Genie Energy subsidiary, with the right of first refusal on the developer’s future projects.

“We continue to leverage Genie’s strong balance sheet and low cost of capital to build our Genie Renewables business,” says Michael Stein, CEO of Genie Energy. “This acquisition,  through our Sunlight Energy investment vehicle, is our first transaction involving operating solar assets and complements our growing pipeline of solar generation projects in various stages of development. We expect that this acquisition will be immediately accretive to our bottom line.”

“The long-term, stable cash-flows generated by this particular portfolio of solar generation projects are fairly representative of the attractive development and acquisition opportunities available across the solar generation industry. We look forward to putting more capital to work on both development projects and generating assets in the coming months,” says Nir Ashpiz, CEO of Sunlight Energy.

Sunlight Energy is a primary equity financing vehicle both for Genie-originated and third-party-originated commercial and community solar projects. Sunlight Energy’s initial capitalization has been provided by Genie Energy, which serves as the fund’s general partner. Third-party investors are invited to participate as limited partners in Sunlight Energy’s project equity.

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Soltec has partnered with Aplitop to develop an application dedicated to improving earthwork task efficiency in photovoltaic solar energy installations.

Dubbed “TcpMDT Photovoltaic Powered by Soltec,” the application is set to be designed as a CAD plugin. Its aim is to streamline execution of earthwork operations, measurements and the relocation of solar trackers in photovoltaic plants, says the company. The tool’s features include terrain analysis, installation design and calculation optimization.

“At Soltec, we understand profitability as a key driver for photovoltaic deployment. Cost savings and increased operational efficiency are part of our commitment to developers as an integrated company,” says Soltec CEO Raúl Morales. “We are excited to take a step further in that direction with Aplitop, continuing to offer market solutions that simplify, save, and drive complex development and installation tasks such as earthworks.”

“Aplitop is committed to innovation and the application of new technologies to sectors with significant growth potential, such as solar energy,” added Aplitop general manager Francisco Navarrete. “Soltec’s extensive experience and knowledge have allowed us to create software that provides solutions to real problems and achieves significant cost savings. We are delighted to offer this collaboration-derived solution to our international distributors.”

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Meanwhile, demand for batteries across the electric vehicle (EV) and battery energy storage system (BESS) markets will likely total 950GWh globally in 2023, according to BloombergNEF.

On average, pack prices fell 14% from 2022 levels to a record low of US$139/kWh this year. This reduction was driven by the dynamics of falling raw material and component prices, and increases in production capacity.

However, despite the good news, BloombergNEF (BNEF) no longer expects to find average pack prices fall below US$100/kWh by 2024 (as it predicted in 2020), nor by 2026 (as it predicted last year). It will however be likely to happen before the end of this decade, with BNEF forecasting that the average pack will cost about US$113/kWh in 2025, and decline in cost sharply to around US$80/kWh by 2030.

Indeed, as supply chain issues like rising raw material costs, post-COVID logistical challenges and rising demand for EVs converged in the past couple of years, BNEF had stated in its 2021 edition that 2022 may be the first year since its surveys began in 2010 that the cost of batteries may be seen to rise.

That prediction was proven correct, with BNEF reporting a 7% average pack price increase from 2021 to 2022, hitting US$151/kWh last year. That sharp reversal had followed a decade of consistent declines of around 10% each year.

Cheapest in China, while US and Europe face learning curve

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cheapest battery packs are to be found in China, given the country’s massive scale of manufacturing and involvement across the whole value chain from materials processing to finished products, as well as its early adopter advantage in terms of tech development and knowhow.

Packs in China were found to be at an average of US$126/kWh while packs made in the US and Europe were 11% and 26% higher respectively. With both the US and Europe battling to become significant players in the battery value chain, the higher prices reflects the relative immaturity of their industries, as well as the fact that China’s many manufacturers are now competing with each other on price, BNEF said.

In May, commodity price reporting agency Fastmarkets said that it expected nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) Li-ion battery pack prices to fall below US$100/kWh in 2027, and lower-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) packs to hit the sub-US$100 threshold even sooner, by 2025.

Again, Fastmarkets noted that those price points could be hit quicker in China, while Fastmarkets Battery Raw Materials Analyst Jordan Roberts said lithium carbonate prices would remain elevated over 2023, but wouldn’t go back up to the peak prices seen last year.

The arrest in the pace of cost declines hit the industry with some shock, coming after BNEF found some pack prices below US$100/kWh as early as 2020.

It has been “another year where battery prices closely followed raw material prices,” and the dynamics of why and how prices are falling have shifted, according to BNEF analyst Evelina Stoikou.

“In the many years that we’ve been doing this survey, falling prices have been driven by scale learnings and technological innovation, but that dynamic has changed,” Stoikou said.

“The drop in prices this year was attributed to significant growth in production capacity across the value chain in combination with weaker-than-expected demand.”

BNEF forecasted that 2024 will see pack prices drop to US$133/kWh, based largely on an expectation that lithium, nickel and cobalt costs will drop again, according to miners and metals traders it surveyed for its new report.

Low-cost LFP shift continues

With both the EV industry and stationary storage sectors increasingly adopting batteries with LFP cathode chemistry, LFP pack average prices were found to be US$130/kWh and LFP cells at US$95/kWh. LFP is now just less than 1/3 (32%) cheaper than NMC.

Another interesting aspect of the changing dynamic from 2022 to 2023’s edition of the BNEF survey is that although LFP is a lower cost cathode chemistry than NMC, the portion of lithium carbonate used in its production is much higher than it is in NMC. That meant when lithium carbonate prices spiked last year, the cost of LFP went up faster than its legacy rival’s.

In the past two years, battery prices have “been on a rollercoaster,” BNEF head of energy storage research Yayoi Sekine said.

“Large markets like the US and Europe are building up their local cell manufacturing and we’re keenly watching how production incentives and tightening regulations on critical minerals will impact battery prices.”

Those efforts at localisation would add complexity to regional battery pricing dynamics in the coming years. The US’ Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law legislation is seeing billions of dollars being pumped into battery value chain investment, while just a few days ago, lawmakers in the European Union (EU) approved the start of negotiations on the Net Zero Industry Act, the bloc’s response to the US’ pace-setting legislation.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 21-22 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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The UK government therefore aims for the country to “have a globally competitive battery supply chain that supports economic prosperity and the net zero transition”, it said in its UK Battery Strategy paper though didn’t give any specific targets.

The meat of the document is 15 measures or ‘policy options’ to deliver on this aim, detailed further down.

Context: UK’s battery industry today

The country has lagged behind Europe and the US for announced projects, with its only homegrown lithium-ion gigafactory company Britishvolt going into administration in early 2023 after failing to scale up, and politicians last week calling for more to be done, as reported by our sister site Current.

The US is providing generous subsidies for domestic battery production, essentially reducing the cost of batteries made there by 30%, while the EU has put in years of policy and funding work to get its sector off the ground (although it may also be under threat from the US’ too).

The UK’s only operational giga-scale lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility – or gigafactory – is a 2GWh plant in Sunderland by AESC, with plans to expand UK manufacturing capacity to 40GWh, while Indian conglomerate Tata has announced a 40GWh factory in Somerset. Both will mainly sell to EV plants operated by affiliates – AESC’s to Nissan, one of its founding companies, and Tata’s to Jaguar Land Rover with which it shares a parent company.

Lithium-ion gigafactories in the UK should find no shortage of local buyers, if they can be priced competitively. The UK’s grid-scale battery storage market is among the most active in the world while its EV manufacturing industry is also relatively strong.

15 measures to support the sector

The most notable is over £2 billion (US$2.5 billion) of new capital and R&D funding for five years to 2030 for EVs, batteries and their supply chains. It also wishes to: ‘Provide sustained, consistent, and targeted support for large-scale, long-term research and innovation activities…’ across the battery supply chain.

It will also provide £61 million specifically in battery R&D through three channels: the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, the Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre, and 20 competition winners developing technologies across the battery value chain.

The measures also include: ‘new financial mechanisms to support start-ups’, ‘expand market access for the trade of critical minerals’, ‘create an environment that is welcoming to foreign investment’ and ‘influence and adopt international standards for reuse, repurposing, and recycling’.

Battery manufacturing is already set to share some of a £960 million package for clean energy the government announced last week, covered by our sister site Solar Power Portal.

Battery supply chain reaction

Figures from across the UK’s battery supply chain, from critical material sourcing companies to end-users, had mixed reactions to the UK Battery Strategy.

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO at Cornish Lithium, said: “The newly published ‘Battery Strategy’ is a major step forward for the UK battery and associated Critical Minerals strategy. It clearly identifies the opportunities to be had by becoming a world leader in this vital rapidly developing area of industry and manufacturing. The document also recognises the peril that awaits the UK if we ignore this opportunity – given the implications for the economy and for defence.”

However, James Frith, European head for battery-focused venture capital (VC) firm Volta Energy, said it: “represents only a fraction of the capital that other Western governments are putting into developing their own battery industries.

“Therefore, while a comprehensive strategy is much needed and the additional funding announced today will boost confidence in the UK’s commitment to the sector, the government needs to continue to work with industry and investors to make sure that the sector grows and is at the forefront of technicaldevelopment.”

Read the full UK Battery Strategy from the UK government here.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 21-22 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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Customers have to trust that quality has not been compromised for cost and that their vendor or service provider will be there for them when needed.

Trina Solar is undoubtedly one of the global solar PV industry’s leaders, establishing a presence in 160 different countries since its founding in 1997, making cumulative shipments of more than 150GW of PV modules in that time by the end of the first half of 2023. The company has been labelled a member of the elite Solar Module Super League (SMSL) by PV Tech, among just a handful of other leading players.

Trina Storage meanwhile officially launched only a couple of years ago, but it has been a while in the making, according to Helena Li, Trina Solar’s Executive president. Preparing to put out a mass market offering for battery energy storage system (BESS) technologies that can be as trusted as Trina Solar is in the PV market, takes time.

It has also been a question of getting the right go-to-market strategy. Just as Trina Solar is known for its vertical integration in everything from materials processing to cells and modules and even solar trackers, Trina Storage makes its own battery cells, which equip products like the Elementa series for grid-scale battery applications. 

The second generation Elementa 2 containerised BESS solution is here. It features Trina’s own 306Ah lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cell which has an expected lifetime of 12,000 cycles, and a highly integrated design that reduces footprint, intelligent management of its liquid cooling system and rack-level battery management. Elementa 2 packs up to 4MWh of storage capacity into a standard 20ft container.  

“Storage-wise, Trina actually goes back to 2015-16, when we started to look at storage. We did some very small projects, like a commercial and industrial (C&I) project in the Maldives, across 27 different islands, and gained some understanding,” Helena Li says.

“In the last three years, we started to in really invest in cell making because we realised with all the solar being deployed in the world, now is definitely a time for energy storage.”

Scale

Of course, one of the other competitive differentiators in the solar industry is the ability to mass produce quality products at scale, and few companies are as comfortable doing that as Trina.

From investing in cell production from an R&D perspective just a short time ago, the company has already ramped up to 12GWh of total ESS capacity by the end of this year.

Next year Trina Storage will “easily” get to more than 25GWh annual production capacity, Li says. Getting control of the cell, means understanding the full behaviour of the system, and understanding what customers want, from a fundamental perspective.

With cells also representing around 50% of the cost of an energy storage system, having visibility and control over cell production means Trina can continue its tradition of “making great product sustainably, and to manage the cost”, Helena Li says.

Trina has been using third-party cells integrated into its Elementa BESS cabinets, but the ability to integrate its own cells will allow the company to respond directly to what their customers really want.

And learning what customers want is of course, again, fundamental to establishing a leadership position in any industry. It’s for this reason that Trina Storage has served as system integrator on some of its own BESS projects, just as Trina Solar has done for PV.

“Cell technology, that’s definitely going to be a competitive differentiator in the future. That’s why we are going for integrating cell-to-cabinet production.”

Having involvement in system integration at project sites meanwhile gives Trina Storage “first-hand information on where the market is, what the customer needs, what are the trends,” Li says, although she is keen to emphasise that Trina isn’t trying to become a big player in system integration, but that first-hand experience helps it understand what its customers, many of which will themselves be system integrators, need.

Helena Li says this success will be followed by growing traction in other markets. While she can’t disclose just yet due to customer confidentiality, deal announcements in the US are imminent, and other regions such as Southeast Asia and parts of Latin America, as well as growing C&I opportunities in China and Japan are also interesting for Trina Storage.

That said, the US is a really fast-growing market for storage and Li says Trina’s in-house analysts believe even the bullish forecasts coming from various research firms are too conservative in their estimates, in some cases by as much as 50% in their assessment of market size.

That’s largely to do with incentive programmes committed to in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). With the act, and other key legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the US has become “very, very aggressive” in its promotion of renewables, Helena Li says, but also in its promotion of locally-based manufacturing of clean energy technologies.

Trina could play a role in helping build the supply chain, working with local partners.

Again, it’s all about trust. The fact that Trina’s customers can count on a 26-year track record means that many of its big solar customers are now enquiring about Trina Storage BESS for their projects, Li says, and this aspect of ‘horizontal’ integration means Trina is the only big league solar PV player that can offer PV modules, solar trackers and BESS.

In an increasingly competitive market, Trina always tries to have “the best quality controlled, mass production skill set,” Helena Li says.

“Because the customer is the most important thing to us. It’s the trust between us and our customers that gives us our competitive edge.”

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The scheme has been described by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (CCEEW) as a “national framework to increase new investment in renewable and clean dispatchable energy projects”. Its emergence has been on the cards since at least the end of last year, when Commonwealth energy minister Chris Bowen and his counterparts at state level agreed the rollout of the scheme in principle.

While in its early stages it had been envisaged as a means of support for around 6GW of generation, following modelling by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), that target has been greatly increased after a period of consultation during August.

It will now underwrite projects that will deliver a total of 32GW, comprising 23GW of variable renewable energy (VRE) generation and 9GW of dispatchable capacity, the latter equating directly to that level of energy storage deployment.

Essentially, the Commonwealth will create a Contracts for Difference (CfD) structure through which tender participants bid a strike price, and payments will flow two ways based on the difference between that strike price and the spot price on the National Electricity Market (NEM), covering Australia’s major interconnected states.  

Already, some investments have been supported by the scheme in New South Wales (NSW), where a recent tender for firming capacity to enable integration of solar and wind VRE was backed by the CIS and saw wins for 2,800MWh of battery storage alongside three virtual power plant (VPP) projects.

The scheme gets its full debut in the coming months, with the launch of major tenders seeking 2,400MWh capacity from developers in Victoria and South Australia expected in December and awarding contracts before the middle of next year.

“The Australian Government’s Capacity Investment Scheme is the biggest news in Australia’s electricity policy for as long as we can remember,” Professor Mountain, director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC), told Energy-Storage.news this morning.

Mountain, who previously welcomed the news of the scheme’s expansion to its current size, and its exclusion of fossil fuel resources from eligibility to bid in its competitive tenders, said the CIS announcement is significant for three main reasons.

The first is its scale. Contracting 32GW of new electricity production from the Commonwealth “is unprecedented in the timescale that they are talking about,” Mountain said, representing an “enormous number”.

“The second is that it’s being funded effectively by the taxpayer. The counterparty to these contracts is the Commonwealth Government, not a certificate obligation that retailers need to acquit.”

That’s a massive change in the allocation of risk, putting the financial cost onto taxpayers who will bear “almost all price risk associated with new renewable energy generation,” rather than electricity consumers.

The third is that the scheme has been envisaged as a Contracts for Difference (CfD) structure, which has only been seen at state level in Victoria and on a much smaller scale than the new national rollout. A change, Mountain said, which “fundamentally rearranges the relationship between the Commonwealth and the states”.

“This new policy puts the Commonwealth directly in the firing line of the industry. It’ll be taking on enormous financial obligations and working with the states. In practice, they’ll be working against each other at times and other times they’ll be working together, to ensure that the necessary consents and approvals and transmission augmentation occurs. That Commonwealth-state interrelationship is a first in Australia,” Mountain said.

“So on those three dimensions, it’s enormous change.”

‘Supercharged’ CfD scheme

Another expert similarly commented that the decision to “supercharge” the CIS would minimise “negative impacts on consumers”, and would be “the most equitable solution for all of us during this once-in-a-lifetime energy transition”.

Stephanie Bashir, founder and CEO of consultancy Nexa Advisory, told Energy-Storage.news that the extension of the CIS “gives investors the certainty they need to accelerate our energy transition, a clear on ramp to the sunset of the Renewable Energy Target (RET, which ended in 2020) and few flow on effects to other investors, so it won’t distort the market”.

“Supercharging the CIS to 32GW is a pragmatic and cost-effective solution for households, business and the government. It will incentivise renewable energy and firming capacity, and it will do so in a timely way,” Bashir said.

“Shoring up new renewables and storage will go a long way towards meeting our 2030 climate targets and, importantly, it ensures reliable and secure replacement generation is in place as ageing and unreliable coal power stations shut.”

National trade association Clean Energy Council (CEC) also welcomed last week’s announcement, with CEO Kane Thornton describing it as “a significant commitment that is intended to put Australia back on track to achieve the Government’s policy of 82% renewables by 2030, replacing ageing coal-fired generation with cheaper renewable energy and driving down power prices”.

“Investment in renewable energy has been in gradual decline since the Renewable Energy Target – a policy that delivered substantial new investment – was met in 2020. The rate of investment slowed more dramatically over the past year as a result of higher project costs, frustrating permitting processes, a congested grid and intensifying global competition in the race to net zero.

“While renewable energy remains the lowest cost form of new generation, there is a clear role for government to facilitate the enormous levels of investment needed to transition our energy system,” Thornton said.

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