A global battery boom is underway and Australia is charging ahead | The Business | ABC NEWS

Around the world, battery installations are growing at a meteoric rate, and Australia is a world leader. One state in particular shows how the technology has become a major player in the grid. Across Western Australia's main electricity system, battery capacity has been added at a breathtaking speed and scale. Soon there will be about 14,000MWh of batteries coming online - enough to meet about three quarters of the typical demand for electricity from the state's main grid at any one time. WA energy minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said in the last quarter of 2025, there was more than 52 per cent of generation coming from renewables and storage and as a result, prices came down for industry. Batteries made solar power more valuable in the day and prices less extreme in the evening. The explosive growth of batteries is also playing out on the East Coast, including at the site of the old Liddell coal-fired power station, which is now under demolition. Australia is now the third biggest market in the world for batteries. The battery boom is helping to push benchmark power prices down from July. Roman Loosen from US storage giant Fluence says lessons learned from places like WA will be taught around the world. Synergy boss Kurt Baker says time will tell whether the state has installed enough battery capacity or whether more may yet be required. #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-2... Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia