Battery storage can turn record-high instances of negative spot pricing in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) into investment opportunities.

On day one of the Energy Storage Summit Australia 2025, the audience heard that although 2 to 4-hour duration battery energy storage systems (BESS) are favourable, longer durations are starting to challenge this.

Developers entering competitive solicitations for energy storage have been offered advice on how to be successful.

“BESS project financing is rapidly evolving,” says Niall Brady of Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

February 2025 saw around 4.5GW/10.5GWh of grid-scale BESS deployments globally, with China continuing to account for the majority but Europe increasing its share from January.

Thimo Mueller of AEMO Services, believes the value of energy storage in Australia will be higher than investor expectations.

Rio Tinto has penned an offtake agreement to secure 2.1GWh of BESS capacity from an Edify Energy-owned asset in Queensland, Australia.

The government Department of Energy (DOE) of the Philippines has opened the initial steps of an auction scheme for renewables paired with energy storage.

Ahead of the Energy Storage Summit Australia 2025, which will take place next week (18-19 March) in Sydney, we take a look at some of the key debates set to take centre stage at the event.

AGL Energy has submitted a 3,200MWh PHES project in New South Wales to the Australian government’s EPBC Act.