TOKYO — Panasonic Corp. will begin selling energy storage systems in Australia to take advantage of the proliferation of solar panels dotting the rooftops of homes in the sunburned country. Sales will begin in October after a feasibility study is conducted
with Australian power companies such as ActewAGL and Red Energy. Rather
than direct sales to consumers, Panasonic plans to target utilities,
according to Katsufumi Miyamato, an official in charge of the project.
Energy storage is hot at the moment, especially following last
month’s announcement from Tesla Motors Inc. that it will sell a suite of
batteries to store electricity for homes, businesses and utilities.
Like Tesla’s, Panasonic’s version will use lithium-ion batteries. “Power companies in Australia are faced with dropping sales as the
installation of solar panels expand and yet they still need to maintain
the grids,” Miyamoto said. “We have been exploring ways to work
together” to benefit both users and retailers of electricity, he said.
For consumers, the system allows the storage of excess electricity
from solar panels for use when the sun isn’t shining, Panasonic said in a
statement. The battery systems will also work as a back-up power
source. Australia has led the world with about 1.4 million homes installing
solar panels on their roofs since 2001 as consumers seek to save money
and reduce reliance on the electricity grid, according to a study last
month by the Grattan Institute in Melbourne.
Global Race
That increase in solar technology puts Australia in prime position
for battery storage, Kane Thornton, chief executive officer of the Clean
Energy Council, said by phone. “We’re at the start of a global race, and Australia is clearly a
country where it makes a lot of sense,” said Thornton, who estimates
1,000 to 2,000 batteries are in use in the country today.
AGL Energy Ltd., Australia’s biggest power producer, said last month
that it would debut a 6 kilowatt-hour home storage battery, while Origin
Energy Ltd. Managing Director Grant King said in an interview last
month that his company is studying the technology. The Panasonic devices, which will also be available in New Zealand,
will be installed in homes, with demand and supply controlled from
offsite servers. Panasonic is targeting 10 billion yen ($80 million) of home-focused
energy storage system sales outside Japan by fiscal 2018 annually,
according to Miyamoto. Germany, Italy, and the U.K. are seen as
potential markets.
Copyright 2015 Bloomberg
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