Overview
The SolarShift project will coordinate and operate about 2850 domestic electric water heaters as a giant, ‘Megawatt scale’ thermal battery to soak up excess solar generation and support electricity networks. New water heater control strategies and tariffs will be designed, aimed to create savings for energy users, balance supply & demand on the network and alleviate challenges attributed to the integration of high levels of rooftop solar power systems. Since household batteries are not yet economically viable, and more than half (~52%) of Australian homes already have electric water heaters, using the energy storage in these water heaters can play a major role in the adoption of rooftop solar. The two-year project has a total cost of $535,000 and is expected to bring $5.4 million and 64.7 mega-tonnes of CO2 emissions savings towards 2035.
The project will be led by UNSW CEEM in collaboration with RACE for 2030 industry partners Endeavour Energy (EE), Solar Analytics (SolA), NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) and Ausgrid, in conjunction with non-RACE for 2030 partners, IntelliHub (iHub) and Energy Smart Water (ESW). The project will be part of International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Heating & Cooling Program as part of Smart Solar Hot Water for 2030 task.
Funder
RACE for 2030
List of researchers
Baran Yildiz (Lead CI)