Site selection is a critical issue for your project, and also a sensitive one. The timing of your site selection will vary depending on your model and partnerships, but will also influence these, so it may need to be an iterative process. Your business model should provide criteria for site selection, which will make the process easier and more transparent. These criteria will be informed by information from and negotiations with your DNSP.
Announcing a potential site(s) or calling for site nominations raises the stakes and makes your battery proposal real for people, particularly those people close to the site. Their reaction may not always be positive. So, getting the timing, engagement and communication right is really important. This doesn’t mean you have to be secretive, but be clear about what stage you’re up to with decisions and manage expectations. Of course, this includes working with your partners throughout the site selection process and making sure everyone is on board with final decisions.
If you are interested in the battery for its potential to provide resilience in natural disasters, then it is important to understand that resilience includes multiple dimensions. Resilience includes technical considerations technical (places on the network that are more fragile), as well as social considerations, groups within the community that are more vulnerable to outages (e.g. people with disabilities, elderly etc). The ANU have developed a methodology for identifying the most vulnerable sites in a region that you can amend to fit your circumstances (access here). This will be important to avoid a situation where you provide a resilience service to a community that does not need it as much as another nearby location.
Site design issues
As discussed in the Site section, there are various aspects of site design that you need to consider and plan for. These include technical, environmental and social issues.
Technical issues include safety considerations and access. It also includes issues that may arise with the battery’s connection at its site to the transmission network.
Environmental issues include characteristics of your site such as shading/direct sunlight (which could degrade parts of the battery system) and how this might change. Also consider vulnerability to flooding, strong winds, and bushfire risk, including the risk of treefall. Finally, there may conceivably be negative environmental impacts such as disruptions or damage to nearby ecosystems (including local flora or fauna) which you should consider in selecting a site.
Social issues include noise and amenity. The neighbourhood battery will make a noise, often like a low humming sound, as it is operating. A typical battery has a noise level of 70dBA (adjusted decibels) at 1m, which is equivalent to a vacuum cleaner. Whether noise is a significant concern will depend on how close the battery is to residential or business areas, and there are ways to mitigate noise, by facing the battery away from nearby residents or designing the surroundings to absorb noise, for example. The level of noise will depend on the battery type, with some models designed to be less noisy than others (although this may likely come with additional cost). So site selection decisions will interact with decisions about the battery model and manufacturer.
Another big social issue is the visual impact of the battery. Most neighbourhood batteries will cover an area of a couple of square metres, depending on size and type. You need to decide, in consultation with your community, whether you want to hide or screen the battery from view (with a hedge or hoarding, for example), or make the battery visible, to foster connection and pride, or to become a symbol of local climate action. For the latter, you might consider commissioning a local artist to design an artwork for the battery or have a local school or youth group paint a mural on it.