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Australia is planning another giant grid-scale battery as the global roll out of super-sized energy storage projects accelerates.
The project in New South Wales-state, which will be three times larger than the current No. 1 battery in California, aims to store energy for the grid as Australia raises its share of renewable power.
Renewable energy fund CEP.Energy Pty plans to begin construction on the 1,200-megawatt unit early in 2022, and bring the battery online the following year, the firm said Friday in a statement.
Big batteries “will play a major role in filling the gaps left by the gradual retirement of coal and gas-fired generation assets,” Chairman Morris Iemma said in the statement. The project will support the Hunter Valley region’s longer-term shift from its role as a coal-mining hub, he said.
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While much of the world was under stay-at-home orders on the first day of 2021, Chinese moviegoers packed into cinemas to watch the romantic comedy Warm Hug and the drama A Little Red Flower, generating the country’s biggest New Year’s box office on record. The 545 million-yuan ($84 million) splashed out on movie tickets was the latest sign that household spending in China is above pre-pandemic levels, mainly thanks to the country’s effective suppression of the coronavirus’s spread.
That’s good news for China’s economy, as consumption has accounted for the bulk of growth in recent years, and for companies such as Nike Inc., which reported its China sales soared 24%, to $2.3 billion, in the most recent quarter the first time they’ve topped $2 billion.