VRB Power Systems, has just been granted USD 1.5 million to deploy small scale energy storage systems in remote solar and wind applications across Australia.

Recently, a lot of interest about VRB's energy storage technology has been focussed on their large scale storage technology to be deployed at Sorne Hill in the Republic of Ireland, which to give you an idea of size, will look something like this existing plant in Utah, although at a capacity of 12 Megawatt hours, 6 times bigger.

Yet energy storage for microgeneration in remote sites is still dominated by noisy, dirty, diesel generators and unlike much of Africa, a wealthy country like Australia could easiily do far better. So here's a picture of VRB's 10 kwh small system, which clearly doesn't take up much space at all, not that anyone wants for room in Australia.

To quote VRB's CEO from this piece in Renewable Energy Access,

We believe that Australia is a great market for our products with lots of opportunities in solar and wind applications both on and off grid. We are also pleased to see the Australian government recognizing the need for energy storage in order to maximize Australia's renewable resources.

Maybe we'll start to see non-government private Australian funds pouring into this technology following a successful deployment. That will be the test. I've always though that with all alternative energy technology, the hurdle is not how much money the government gives you, but how ready consumers are to part with theirs.