Brisbane City Council rejects federally funded community batteries

Three batteries designed to power 1000 homes have been rejected by Brisbane City Council because the fridge-sized devices would take up space in public parks, sparking a political war of words.

The federal government is rolling out community batteries to back up power generated by rooftop solar. Picture: AAP

Three federally funded community batteries the size of a fridge have been knocked back by Brisbane City Council because they would take up public green space.

But the LNP-dominated council and the federal Opposition have accused Labor of failing to deliver on its $200 million, nationwide battery program.

Council environment committee chair Councillor Tracy Davis said Council did not apologise for blocking Labor’s “lazy approach of plonking giant batteries in public parks’’.

The government promised at the last election that it would deliver five batteries in Brisbane.

Council had supported two of them, in road reserves in Coorparoo and Moorooka.

Development applications for three sites, at a Scouts Hall in Nundah, a Newmarket substation and a small park in Woodbine St, The Gap, were knocked back by council.

The office of Energy Minister Chris Bowen has since written to Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner asking him to approve the three batteries, capable of powering 1000 homes, or suggest acceptable alternative sites.

More than 400 of the 90-180kWh batteries were supposed to supply a total of 100,000 homes with back-up power when solar panels were not feeding into the grid.

But just 21 of the community batteries promised by the Albanese government at the last election were currently in operation, latest departmental figures showed.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said at the time that they would help lower power prices and stabilise the electricity grid.

Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien said the scheme had been exposed as a “sham”.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has written to the Lord Mayor about community batteries. Picture: Martin Ollman

But Mr Bowen’s office insisted more community batteries were being opened “every day’’ and the rollout was on track, despite not providing updated figures on the number of operational batteries.

Rebecca Hack, the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Ryan which covered The Gap in Brisbane’s northwest, called on Mr Schrinner to back his repeated claims of being “green’’ by approving the batteries.

However Ms Davis said Ms Hack’s “bogus’’ claim was a “desperate attempt for relevance from a clueless Labor candidate’’.

“With the election now called, the federal Labor government has been caught out failing to deliver on its own commitment about community batteries and is now trying to blame local councils,’’ she said.

“The federal Labor government has known for months we don’t support its lazy approach of plonking giant batteries in public parks, but has done nothing to help find alternatives.’’