Another four-hour big battery wins planning approval as state gears up for grid with no coal

A 100 MW, four hour (400 MWh) battery proposed for the wheat-belt region of Western Australia by Atmos Renewables in partnership with Nomad Energy has been approved for construction.

Nomad Energy confirmed on LinkedIn that the “much needed” project had received formal approval from WA’s Regional Development Assessment Panel on Friday, after getting strong backing from the Shire of Merredin.

Approval comes just a few months after the two companies lodged a development application for the Merredin battery storage system, which will be located next to the local sub-station, around 7.5 km south west of the town of the same name.

Atmos and Nomad recently unveiled plans to jointly develop, construct and operate more than one gigawatt of wind, solar and storage in the South West Interconnected System, the biggest grid in W.A. that stretches from Perth to Kalgoorlie.

Atmos said in January that it hoped to reach a financial investment decision on the $220 million Merredin battery later this year, with grid studies and tendering for an engineering, procurement and construction contract currently underway.

In a statement to local media, Nomad managing director Guy Beesley said the companies were still targeting financial close in the fourth quarter of this year.

“We’re well progressed on the grid connection work with Western Power,” Beesley said.

WA only commissioned its first battery on its main grid last year – the 100 MW, two hour Kwinana battery, but another four big battery projects are already under construction that will lift the state’s batteries storage capacity 20-fold to more than four gigawatt hours by the end of next year.

The federal government is also planning a separate tender of 500 MW of “dispatchable renewables” – read battery storage – later this year as it rolls out the W.A. component of the Capacity Investment Scheme.

The state is preparing to shut down the last of its state-owned coal generators within the next few years, while there is an expectation that the last privately owned facility Bluewaters, will also close down because of financial difficulties.