August 18, 2022: -A budget beneath the management of BlackRock Real Assets is set to acquire Akaysha Energy, an Australian company that develops battery storage and renewable energy projects.

On Tuesday, BlackRock said it intended to commit an extended 1 billion Australian dollars “to support the build-out” of more than 1-gigawatt battery storage assets.

Looking ahead, BlackRock stated that Akaysha had prepared to develop energy storage projects in Asia-Pacific markets, which include Japan and Taiwan, in the near term.

Practical, large-scale storage systems become increasingly important as renewable energy capacity grows. This is because the sources of energy like the sun and wind are renewable. They are not constant.

The International Energy Agency has added that a “rapid scale-up of energy storage is critical to meet flexibility needs in a decarbonized electricity system.” According to the IEA, investment in battery storage grew by almost 40% in 2020, reaching $5.5 billion.

Figures from the Australian government express that fossil fuels accounted for 76% of total electricity generation in the year 2020, with coal’s share coming in at 54%, gas at 20%, and oil at 2%. Renewables’ share comes in at 24%.

In April, the Department of Industry of Australia, Science, Energy, and Resources said renewables were responsible for an estimated 77,716-gigawatt electricity generation in 2021. This operates out as 29% of total electricity generation.

On Tuesday, Charlie Reid, APAC co-head of BlackRock’s climate infrastructure, declared that as Australian renewable energy infrastructure continued to “mature,” investment would be required in battery storage assets.

He said this was required “to provide the resilience and reliability of the grid, especially with the continuing sooner retirement of coal-fired power stations.”

“For our clients, we see much long-term growth potential in the development of advanced battery storage assets all over Australia and other Asia-Pacific markets and look forward to working with Akaysha to provide an orderly change to a clean and secure energy future” Reid added.

As important economies worldwide are planning to ramp up their renewable energy capacity, interest in battery storage looks to grow.