The Victoria government has opened a second round of its 100 Neighbourhood Batteries Program in Australia, which has been expanded to include energy backup systems.

Allegro Energy, an Australian-based developer of water-based redox flow battery energy storage solutions, has attracted AU$17.5 million (US$11.67 million) in Series A funding from investors including Origin Energy, Melt Ventures and Impact Ventures.

Construction has started at the 600MW/1,600MWh Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub (MREH), one of the largest energy storage projects in Victoria, Australia.

Six energy storage projects, totalling 3,626MWh of energy, have secured support via the Australian government’s Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS).

The Clean Energy Council (CEC) of Australia has revealed that six large-scale energy storage projects totalling 573MW/2,047MWh reached financial commitment in the second quarter of 2024.

AEMO has said that despite concerns about grid reliability in 2027-28, energy storage projects will help alleviate some of these concerns.

Today (29 August), the Victoria government announced it has streamlined the planning process to deliver the state’s “largest” battery energy storage system (BESS), ACEnergy’s 350MW/700MWh Joel Joel project.

Australian energy major AGL Energy and Neoen have signed a 10-year “virtual battery” contract to build a second 270MW/540MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at the Western Downs Battery project in Queensland, Australia.

Australian utility Origin Energy has started constructing its 300MW/650MW Mortlake battery energy storage system (BESS) in Victoria, Australia.

Renewable energy developer Sun Cable has secured approval from the Australian government for the Australian element of its Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) interconnector.