Australia’s first grid-connected, industrial-scale sodium-sulfur battery has been switched on at the site of a materials processing plant in Brisbane, where it will help power the plant’s operations while also demonstrating the novel long-duration storage technology under real-life conditions.
The 250 kilowatt (kW) and 1.45 megawatt-hour (MWh) “NAS” battery system, manufactured by Japan’s NGK, has been commissioned at Lava Blue’s Centre for Predictive Research into Specialty Materials (PRiSM) and connected to the Energex distribution network in Brisbane’s south east.
The up to six-hour battery will work alongside an already installed 200 kW solar system to supply up to 100% of the facility’s peak operating load, including energy-intensive advanced materials processing equipment.
The project was developed through the Queensland Energy Storage Technology (Quest) Hub, a QUT and Queensland government-backed initiative designed to accelerate the development and commercialisation of battery alternatives to lithium-ion.
NGK’s NAS batteries use sodium (Na) anodes and sulfur cathodes, separated by a fine ceramic solid electrolyte. They can be repeatedly charged and discharged through sulfur-sodium chemical reactions.
