Are you worried about batteries?

Australia is a global leader when it comes to clean energy generation – almost 1 in 3 households have solar panels and benefit from an average saving of $1500 per year. The next step? Storage. We’ve got a glut of generation when the sun is shining, and increasing community and household energy storage will boost savings and help power our homes with our own cheaper, cleaner, locally generated electricity.

There is some anxiety about batteries, due to the many reports and videos of smaller consumer batteries that catch fire. However, community- or neighbourhood-scale batteries are in a different category to those smaller consumer batteries.

Mid-scale batteries are not the same as smaller retail batteries and are much more rigorously designed, manufactured and operated.

There is a difference between the mid-scale batteries (such as community- or neighbourhood-scale batteries) and the small batteries you find in your phone, your laptop, mobility devices and your tools. Many smaller batteries, such as e-bike batteries, are not regulated to the same standards as larger, community-scale batteries, and can be unsafe if not monitored during use or charging.

In comparison, community-scale batteries, such as the community battery Yack02, must comply with multiple Australian Standards, Victorian Planning laws (ensuring consultation with fire authorities and other organisations), as well as the requirements of the Indigo Shire Council, the Yack Sports Park and TRY’s own standards. We also collaborate with the CFA upon completion, as we have with many other projects.

Mid-scale batteries must have fire management systems and fire suppression systems, and the ability to shut battery cells down when the temperature exceeds certain limits. This doesn’t mean that a fire can’t happen, but it does mean that the risk is managed, the same as the risks for petrol tankers, and gas cyclinders are managed. Those items are highly explosive but we use them everyday, everywhere, without much thought.

Should the regulations and standards be harsher for smaller consumer batteries? Undoubtedly. At the moment much of the onus is put on the consumer to manage and monitor those smaller batteries, to use and dispose of them safely. Most people are not aware of or able to do that.

Mid-scale batteries are quite different though and it doesn’t make sense to turn away from their many benefits because we’ve had a bad experience with a related technology. If that was the case, we would never have developed modern cars or air travel, or indeed gas lighting, gas stoves, and a multitude of appliances and processes which each have their own inherent risks.