Victorian Large-scale Solar Battery

Located just west of Melbourne, Ballarat will soon be home to Victoria’s large-scale 30MW solar battery! So, what does this mean for the region of Ballarat?

forms part of the Victorian Government’s plan to make energy more affordable.

Recently unveiled, the Ballarat 30MW Solar Battery has the capacity to power over 20,000 homes simultaneously for an hour and will have the ability to respond to the grid in just a matter of milliseconds. This big battery forms part of the Victorian Government’s plan to make energy more affordable.

What is a large-scale battery?

Large-scale batteries are essentially the brother of solar farms – solar farms generate energy to send into the grid or into micro-grid communities, and big batteries store energy generated in a large battery to feed to homes and businesses that are grid-tied.

How does this benefit the community?

There are many benefits for the community for large-scale batteries, by storing energy in a battery, the battery will have the ability to respond to changes in the grid and react appropriately – whether it be to power homes through a blackout or to draw energy from the grid when there is a large surplus fed in.

Who owns the large-scale battery?

The battery will be grid-owned and will is the equivalent size of over 6000 household solar battery storage systems.

provide communities with vital energy supply when the grid is down.

Why does the community need a large-scale battery?

Large-scale battery storage systems provide communities with vital energy supply when the grid is down. The growing prevalence of grid outages, uncertainty of the national grid and the growing dependency on energy by households, businesses and hospitals mean that there needs to be a reliable energy source that can be drawn from in the event of an outage. With peak demand for energy during summer and winter, a grid outage could pose as potential health risks to ill people or the elderly who, may not have access to another energy source if the grid goes down.

Are these different to household batteries?

Yes, large-scale batteries are different to household solar batteries as they are Virtual Power Plant (VPP) enabled which give it the ability to respond to requests such as charge or discharge times when required to stabilise the grid, whereas household batteries will only feed to the property where it is installed.

There are so many developments in Victoria regarding the adoption of solar technology, in homes, businesses and large-scale installations. This large-scale solar battery is one of two proposed for the state.