Where is the World's Biggest Battery Being Built?

In the age of digitisation, it’s rare we go a full waking hour without using power. And batteries are at the heart of that power. Typically thought of as the small cylindrical bars we pop into the TV remote, batteries more broadly are containers which hold electricity in the form of chemical energy. They come a lot bigger than those we find in household gadgets. In fact, plans are in place to build the biggest battery in the world. But where? And what for?

Introducing the solar battery

The record-breaking battery system is actually part of a wider plan to expand Australia’s renewable energy capacity. Riverland – a region of South Australia – will be boosted by a massive solar farm, which is planned to be ready by the end of 2017. But with a huge solar farm comes the need for a huge battery storage system.

It’s well known that one of the challenges with solar power is the supply. When the sun isn’t shining on the panels, they don’t have the light they need to produce energy. It means they cannot fully replace traditional methods because they need something there to back up the energy supply when the sun isn’t there. But in recent years, we have seen a solution developing in the form of solar battery storage.

How does it work?

While there are times when solar panels don’t produce enough energy, there are also periods where they produce too much. Solar batteries work by utilising this excess. When they’re in place, the spare energy from solar panels is used to charge the batteries. During periods of low (or no) energy, the batteries act as a back-up for solar panels.

And for Australia’s Riverland region, the battery will be the world’s biggest of its kind. How big exactly? It will be made up of a massive 1.1 million batteries, with a minimum of 100 MW of storage. Based on typical estimates, this is enough to power a million homes. Not bad for a back-up battery.

What is photometry?

Photometry is the science of measuring light. It’s important in the development of solar energy because it allows us to measure the sun’s radiance and optimise solar panels accordingly. But photometrics can also refer to the use of light for measurement, such as measuring the content of water. It’s a highly useful method in water quality testing, because it provides a quick and easy methods, as explored in ‘Sensitive determination of iron in drinking water, mineral water, groundwater, and spring water using rapid photometric tests’.