NSW government approves 500 megawatt battery at Liddell, as first of four 500-megawatt units shuts down from next month as AGL transitions from coal

Today, we reveal that energy stalwart AGL has NSW government approval for a 500-megawatt battery at Liddell - part of a suite of grid infrastructure it unveiled in 2017 to replace the ageing 2000-megawatt coal-fired power station set to lose a quarter of its capacity next month, and the rest in April 2023.

Despite the enormity of the grid transition - and the multiplication of demand that will come from electric vehicles and the still nascent hydrogen industry - most, but not all, experts are relatively sanguine about Australia's ability to manage the change.

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The Morrison government's Energy Minister Angus Taylor has frequently expressed concerns about the stability and reliability of a coal-free, or coal-lite, grid.

As Mr Taylor explains to reporter Matthew Kelly today, he sees ESG priorities - environmental, social and governance - as missing a fourth letter; C for customers, household and commercial, needing affordable power.

The Herald has seen enough of the global shift to renewables to accept that grid-scale wind and solar can produce massive amounts of electricity.

But as we feel obliged to repeat - a solar-heavy grid must by definition produce 24 hours' worth of power in half that time or less - and that power must be stored overnight, or longer, until it can be used.

This is no easy feat.

The battery field that AGL intends at Liddell - its contractors are Finnish firm Wartsila and US/German joint venture Fluence - is nothing like a full replacement for Liddell.

But with batteries proposed and approved for other points on the grid, here and interstate, the process is physically under way.

Hydrogen, as mentioned earlier, is in its early stages as a viable industry.

The University of Wollongong breakthrough reported today is the latest in a chain of announcements as researchers race to commercialise their discoveries.

The Hunter is in a prime position to capitalise on this growth.

It has to come, because Australia as a whole will be in a spot if we can't compensate for the climate change obligated loss of coal power.

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