Chinese company BYD is reportedly looking to flood the Australian market with solar batteries, competing with Elon Musk’s Tesla and Australia’s Redflow, headed by Simon Hackett, among others, as the nation comes to grips with solar energy.
Julia Chen, BYD’s senior sales director for new energy development, has said that this year Australia is shaping as the most important market for BYD globally.
Overall, the Chinese company is targeting between 4000 and 5000 sales of its B-Box battery this year, half of all those globally. It’s unclear how many it hopes to sell Down Under.
The original B-Box is said to have been reconfigured for Australian conditions and sells for a recommended A$8500 – but this could come down when Tesla is expected to launch its Powerwall2 unit into the Australian market later this year.
Apart from the growing home market, battery companies are looking to giant government-backed large-scale solar farms in several states, including South Australia, Victoria and Queensland. CDN in March reported that plans in Victoria and Queensland for three large solar farms costing $230 million have received the go-ahead after nailing down debt funding.
