Featured in The Long Game – 02-2023

A battery of dilemmas

A surge of community battery trials in Australia is seeking to make better use of the country’s vast distributed solar resource. But the results so far have battered expectations. pv magazine Australia’s Natalie Filatoff and Bella Peacock explore the motivations, challenges, and outlook for sharing and monetizing solar rooftop riches.

By

Bella Peacock, Natalie Filatoff

08 Feb 2023

Community batteries, such as the illustrated battery in the background, in Melbourne, can help residents to engage in the energy transition. | Photo: Matt Krumins/City of Yarra

Community battery is a phrase on everybody’s lips – it promises the balance increasingly distributed electricity grids in equitable and efficient ways. The local community battery concept in Australia is championed by solar households, councils, state governments and the new, net-zero-motivated federal government. Many solar-heavy neighborhoods want a community battery, but can they deliver on …

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