Focus on battery storage could be a cost-effective energy goal for Albanese government, report says

Anthony Albanese at a battery manufacturer during the election campaign. Energy groups say government support for storage technologies may help achieve the government’s emissions reduction goals. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The Albanese government should redirect some of the $20bn earmarked for its Rewiring the Nation plan to support a storage goal that would turbocharge the take-up of batteries and other methods to store power, according to a Victoria Energy Policy Centre report.

The paper, released on Tuesday by the independent group, said the market alone was unlikely to achieve either the bipartisan-supported net zero emissions goal by 2050 nor Labor’s pledge to lift Australia’s current 2030 emissions reduction goal by almost two-thirds. The former would require a 20-fold increase from existing storage levels.