The Real Assets fund, managed by the American investment company BlackRock, will acquire the Australian company Akaysha Energy, which is developing energy storage projects, CNBC reports.
On Tuesday, BlackRock said it intends to allocate about $700 million to support the creation of battery storage assets with a capacity of more than 1 gigawatt.
Akaysha Energy plans to develop energy storage projects in several markets in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and Taiwan.
“Efficient large-scale storage systems are becoming increasingly important as renewable energy capacity expands. This is because while energy sources such as the sun and wind are renewable, they are fickle,” the CNBC report notes.
The International Energy Agency said that “the rapid expansion of energy storages is critical to meet the flexibility needs of a decarbonized electricity system.”
According to the IEA, investment in battery storage increased nearly 40% in 2020 to $5.5 billion.
Australian government data show that fossil fuels accounted for 76% of total electricity production in 2020, with coal accounting for 54%, gas – 20% and oil – 2%. The share of renewable energy sources was 24%.