Adelaide City Council is aiming to further reduce the city’s carbon emissions by offering a $5,000 incentive for residents, businesses, community organizations and schools to install energy batteries capable of storing electricity produced through renewable sources.
Storage batteries allow excess energy produced through renewable sources to be stored for use when the source is not providing enough energy – for example, excess solar energy produced during the day can be stored for use at night.
Recent technological advances have made lithium-ion batteries with the capacity to store renewal energy accessible. Previously, the absence of this type of technology limited the viablity of some renewable energy sources.
Earlier this year, South Australian premier Jay Weatherill committed to making Adelaide carbon-neutral by 2020.
The incentive will form part of the Sustainable City Incentives Scheme, which also provides subsidies for the installation of LED lights, the installation of solar power systems and apartment building energy efficiency upgrades.
Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese described the combination of renewable energy and battery storage as “a game changer.”
“We are on the cusp of an energy revolution, now, just as we capture and store the rain water that falls on our roofs, we can capture the sun’s energy and store it until we need it, making continuous availability of carbon-free renewable energy a reality,” he said.
