Australian advanced materials company Lava Blue has commissioned a 250 kW/1.45 MWh sodium-sulfur (NAS) battery at its Centre for Predictive Research into Specialty Materials (PRiSM) facility in Brisbane, marking the deployment of Australia’s first grid-connected NAS battery.
Manufactured by Japan-based NGK, the battery has been connected to Energex’s local distribution network and the National Electricity Market. It is integrated with 200 kW of existing solar generation at the PRiSM facility and can supply up to 100% of the site’s peak operating load, including energy-intensive materials processing equipment.
The project was developed through the Queensland Energy Storage Technology (QUEST) Hub, a Queensland Government and Queensland University of Technology (QUT)-funded initiative focused on battery materials, chemistries and energy storage systems. Lava Blue is a founding industry partner of the QUEST Hub.
The PRiSM facility was selected to host the battery because it provides an industrial operating environment where the system can be tested against variable processing loads, solar generation and grid requirements.
Battery Supports Industrial Energy Storage
Lava Blue Managing Director Michael McCann said the installation would allow the company to assess long-duration energy storage alongside renewable generation in an industrial setting.
The company’s advanced materials processing activities include high-temperature and other energy-intensive operations. Integrating solar generation with long-duration storage is intended to provide renewable electricity to these loads for extended periods and generate operational data on the interaction between industrial processing and future energy systems.
The project also complements Lava Blue’s work on mineral-processing technologies for recovering high-purity materials from mineral resources and feedstocks.
QUEST Hub Director and QUT Associate Professor Joshua Watts led the project for QUT, including work on battery management system components required for grid integration.
The project also involves Melbourne-based Allset Energy, which provided electrical engineering, installation and system integration. This included developing the interface between the NAS battery, the solar generation system, the PRiSM facility and the electricity grid.
The power management system incorporates more than 80% Australian content. This includes DC converters developed and manufactured in Queensland by Advanced Converter Solutions for voltage adaptation and system integration.
NAS Battery Technology
NAS batteries are designed for long-duration energy storage and can provide six or more hours of discharge at full rated capacity. The technology can be used for renewable energy firming, peak demand management and grid stability applications.
According to Lava Blue, NAS technology has more than 20 years of commercial operating experience internationally, with approximately 5 GWh deployed across more than 250 applications.
An earlier NAS battery system was deployed by Allset Energy for QUT at a remote mining site in Western Australia in 2023 as part of a microgrid. The system provided operational data on NAS battery performance under Australian conditions.
The new installation at PRiSM extends the deployment to a grid-connected industrial environment and is expected to provide additional operating data for potential future applications of NAS technology in Australia.
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