Controversial new battery installation rules that the industry claims will make energy storage more expensive and less accessible to Australia’s millions of solar households have been published by Standards Australia.
The standard, which has been five years in the drafting, aims to fill a “gap in safety guidance” for the nascent Australian home energy storage sector, particularly around concerns about potential fire hazards presented by some battery chemistries.
Called AS/NZS 5139:2019, Electrical installations – Safety of battery systems for use with power conversion equipment, it was described by Standards Australia on Friday as a “key improvement for the sector” aimed to ensure systems were safe, consistent, and reliable.
But finding a middle ground of reasonable and necessary protection of consumers and an industry crippling blanket rule thrown over a multitude of different technologies and chemistries, has proven difficult.
As we have reported, an earlier draft of the new standard, that threatened to effectively ban the installation of lithium-ion battery systems inside Australian homes and garages altogether, was scrapped in late 2017 after a major industry backlash.
Two years on, and despite the promise of closer industry consultation, many major battery storage manufacturers argue the revised and now published version of the standard is not much better than its binned predecessor.
Of particular concern is the requirement for all home battery systems – even those rated by Standards Australia as having negligible fire risk – to install complicated and costly fire proofing measures on installation.
These measures include the use of compressed concrete sheeting – compulsory for installations on any walls connected to habitable rooms – and restrictions ensuring that a battery is not installed too close to any doors, windows, ceilings, stairs, or un-associated electric appliances.
For well established companies like Tesla and Sonnen – which between them have installed hundreds of thousands of home batteries in the US and Europe, none of which have spontaneously combusted, to date – these measures are confounding.
“Storage is (now) going to be really hard, really complicated, and really expensive,” said Sonnen Australia’s James Sturch, who has represented the now Shell-owned battery maker in the Standards Australia process.
“It’s going to put a massive massive brake on the entire industry.”
To read the full story on RenewEconomy sister site One Step Off The Grid click here…
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
Zoom out for a bit I think batteries will prevent houses burning down. With less stress on powerlines there is less chance of them sparking out and coursing a bush fire. And we all see houses lots to bush fires every year. not to mention the climate change mitigation which would see less fire storm weather conditions.
Finally where is the safety code on smoking in bed after many adult beverages? That’s the real issue.
Get a flow battery
Australia is the only place in the World with these stupid “standards”, based on nothing more than a political desire to make renewable energy as expensive as possible, and the fact there is no evidence that current installations have been faulty.
https://www.afr.com/technology/battery-suppliers-battle-overkill-on-installation-rules-20170801-gxmp4b
I haven’t read the standard as yet, but one thing I bet, is that they haven’t made provision for the toxic gas that can kill quicker than any fire that could erupt from a Li- Ion battery. Perhaps I will comment further after. At the moment I couldn’t give a monkey’s.
They’re mitigating the risk of lithium batteries. Just because a fire hasn’t happened yet, it doesn’t change the risk. It would be like saying a week before the Grenfell fire in the UK that aluminium cladding on buildings is safe, as there hasn’t been a fire. The buildings in Australia haven’t gone up in flames so we should leave the cladding in place?
How much area needs to be covered by the sheeting? A 2.7 m by 1.2 m sheet at Bunnings is $219, there are other sizes as well. Two of these would cover a decent area of a wall. That price would be cheaper for installers.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/james-hardie-hardiepanel-2700-x-1200-x-15mm-fc-flooring-3-24sqm_p0715471
Not a huge extra cost considering the price of the batteries.