The NEM is seeing a surge in longer-duration battery storage

The National Electricity Market connection pipeline has grown 43 per cent over the past year, driven by a surge in battery storage projects, particularly longer-duration systems. The article does not provide detail on project size, timeline, chemistry, location or cost.

Where this fits

Longer-duration batteries are being built because wind and solar output is weather-dependent and seasonal. The grid cannot rely on sun and wind alone, so storage has become essential infrastructure. This is a materials and sovereignty problem. Lithium-ion batteries are manufactured overwhelmingly in China or with Chinese-processed materials. As Australia builds more storage to compensate for the variability of renewables, it deepens dependence on Chinese supply chains for a critical grid asset. The battery surge is not a sign of energy independence; it is a sign of how much firming capacity the renewable transition requires, and who controls it.

What it means

A 43 per cent pipeline growth in storage suggests the grid operator and developers now accept that renewables alone cannot meet demand reliably. Longer-duration batteries are an attempt to extend output over hours or days when wind and solar fall short. But Australia is outsourcing the manufacture of this critical infrastructure to a strategic rival at a moment when supply-chain leverage is a tool of state coercion. The honest question is not whether batteries should be built. It is whether Australia should have banned the one firm, energy-dense, low-material, long-lived alternative that does not require China's permission to operate: nuclear power.