All grown up: French giant takes full control of big battery built at site of world’s dirtiest coal generator

With two and a half years of operations at the Hazelwood bit battery on the books, French energy giant Engie says it has decided to buy out minor partner, and project builder, Eku Energy.

The 150 megawatt (MW), one hour Hazelwood battery was the first big battery project for both Eku and Engie, and was built in 2023 on the site between the old Hazelwood coal mine pit and the decommissioned power plant in Gippsland, that was once rated as the dirtiest in the world.

Eku, a battery spinoff of Macquarie Asset Management , says it is now moving away from being a minor partner in renewable energy developments, which is why it sold the 30 per cent of Hazelwood it owned to Engie. 

The move gives Engie a free hand to expand the site with a second battery, says Engie’s local managing director of renewables and batteries Lauri Caspari.

“Full ownership of the Hazelwood Battery allows us to progress our expansion plans as we pursue additional storage investments in Australia,” she said in a statement. 

“This consolidates our commercialisation plans, including ongoing work to expand the battery capacity at the Hazelwood site.”   

Engie is currently building its second big battery, the 200 MW, two hour Pelican Point unit in South Australia, next to the large gas plant, and has plans in motion for another two big battery projects as well as a series of wind and solar projects.

Eku already operates one other big battery, the 200 MW, two hour Rangebank facility in Victoria, and is currently building another, and has plans for a further eight units in Australia and New Zealand.

Eku says the Hazelwood battery, which it co-funded, was its “seed asset” but is now focused on being the majority owner and operator of the projects it takes from idea to operation. 

The enormous shock-absorber super batteries being put on coal power plant sites in New South Wales, belie that fact that Hazelwood was the first former coal power plant to host one. 

The Hazelwood power station was the country’s dirtiest coal generator, a 1,600MW giant that was shut down in early 2017, controversially by Engie with little notice.

See Renew Economy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia for more information.

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