Battery storage costs have plunged spectacularly over the last few years – down 70 per cent according to one leading supplier – but that means that it remains a highly competitive and a even cut-throat business.
The supplier of the most powerful battery to be built in Australia – US-based Powin – filed for bankruptcy protection even before the 850 MW, 1680 MWh Waratah Super Battery on the central coast of NSW was built.
That battery still has not reached its full capacity, but that is because of a fault in the Australian-supplied transformers, one of which has to be rebuilt and won’t be delivered to the site until later this year.
Just up the road, the 700 MW, 3,170 MWh Eraring battery will be the biggest in Australia in terms of storage capacity – at least for a while – and the first stages of the project have already been completed.
Its supplier, the Finnish-based Wärtsilä, has decided to hive off its relatively small battery business into a new joint venture, largely because of low orders and low margins, and because it seems more interested in its “engine” business that is doing very well out of soaring data centre demand in recent months.
