Household Energy Storage Installations and Prospects in Australia
Driven by high electricity prices and incentives, household storage in Australia has already had a certain degree of economy. Australia's high cumulative installed capacity of distributed PV, on the basis of which the ratio of energy storage to PV assembly grows at a high rate in 2022, mainly due to the significant improvement in the economics of household storage under the improvement of energy prices and the federal solar and storage incentives. 2022 Australia's household storage market develops rapidly. According to SunWiz statistics, Australia's household storage market will realize 47,100 new installations and 589MVh of installed capacity in 2022, representing a year-on-year growth of 55.72%/76.88%, respectively.
Sufficient light conditions and favorable policy environment nourish the rapid growth of distributed PV in Australia. It is reported that Australia's light resources ranked first in the world, in the same time, Australia's solar and energy storage equipment can produce more electricity, each unit of solar power and battery storage generation cost is lower. At the same time, the government gives FIT subsidies to household PV. Under the double favorable conditions of light factor and policy factor, the cumulative installed capacity of household PV in Australia is high because cheapest way to store solar energy.
The high increase in installed capacity of household PV provides the basis for household storage installation, while the record high proportion of PV assembly is the main source of household storage installation growth. According to Sunwiz statistics, 22 years of small energy storage installed a total of 47,100 units, the equivalent of the year new energy storage sets / PV sets of about 15.0%, +7.0 pct. According to the Australia Energy Council statistics, 22 years of small PV equipment with storage 21,700 units, accounting for about 46.0% of the total number of household solar batteries installations, i.e., of the original PV equipment with storage accounted for about 54.0%, about half each.
According to the Australian Energy Regulator (NER), the spot price of electricity on the Australian continent surged to a peak in the second quarter of 2022, mainly due to the impact of events such as the sharp rise in energy prices under geopolitical conflicts, and the continued shutdown of coal power plants on the east coast of Australia as a result of the La Niña-driven rains, which caused an emergency in the supply of both coal and natural gas. Electricity prices may remain on an upward trajectory in the second half of the year due to higher wholesale prices caused by inflation, geopolitical conflict and aging power plants. According to the AER, electricity prices are expected to have a 20% to 25% year-on-year increase from July 1, '23, mainly affecting home users and small traders, or directly stimulating the demand for home energy storage installations.
Many states in Australia provide subsidies for household storage systems to reduce installation costs. Australian states use policies that provide direct purchase rebates or zero-interest loans to homeowners for the purchase of energy storage equipment. With the support of subsidy programs, it is more feasible and economical for families to install home storage, and the number of home storage installations has increased rapidly over the past few years.