UK battery storage group Zenobe Energy aims to invest $1 billion in Australia and New Zealand over the next three years, providing electric power to buses and building big batteries to help stabilise Australia’s electricity grid.G Plc, expects Australia and New Zealand to become its second-biggest market after the UK.
But its ambitions in Australia are bigger than buses. It also wants to build battery storage sites connected to transmission lines that are specifically designed to stabilise the electricity grid, as it is doing in Scotland.£750 million investment, have technology and contracts specifically designed to keep providing power if there are renewable energy disruptions or faults.
“It would be much better if they went out saying, ‘This is our challenge ... how would you address it?’ rather than saying, ‘We need X megawatts of batteries at this location; bid for it’.”James Basden, Zenobe founder director It has developed an electric depot for the NSW government at Leichhardt in Sydney’s inner west, which charges 55 electric buses operated by Transit Systems.
Zenobe also provides software to bus operators that shows how the batteries are working and monitors their performance. Zenobe wants to set up more depots in Australia that can charge electric buses, similar to the Leichhardt depot in Sydney.