Another gigawatt hour added to Brisbane battery to make it biggest in Australia

• Australian-founded global investor Quinbrook has announced the addition of another one gigawatt hour to its already giant Supernode battery near Brisbane in a move that will make it the biggest in Australia.

The addition of the 250 megawatt (MW), 1,000 megawatt hour (MWh) stage 3 of the project will take the total Supernode battery “campus” to 750 MW and 2,540 MWh. That will pip the 700 MW, 2,800 MWh Eraring battery in NSW in terms of power capacity, although not in terms of storage.

Crucially, the third stage has been made possible by a contract signed with the state owned generation company Stanwell Corp, which appears to be against the tide, or at least the rhetoric, created by the new LNP government, which has said it will scrap the state’s legislated renewable energy targets, and keep coal fired power stations open.

However, Stanwell says the decision was made with the full approval of the state government.

Quinbrook is yet to reach financial close on the project, but expects to do so by the end of September. It is absolutely convinced of the economics of solar and storage, and has previously flagged up to five giant eight hour batteries across Australia to support new green industries looking for low cost, reliable, zero emissions power.

“Stanwell’s contract for Supernode Stage 3 represents the complete ‘sell out’ of our current plans for large scale battery storage at the highly strategic South Pine site,” said David Scaysbrook, the co-founder and managing partner of Quinbrook, said in a statement.

“Construction for Stages 1 and 2 has already commenced in preparation for delivery of both of those initial stages under our previously announced offtake partnership with Origin Energy. Construction of Stage 3 will now head into accelerated planning, taking our total investment in Supernode to over $1.4 billion.

Scaysbrook says the South Pine location is “strategically important” to the Queensland grid. “It’s hard to imagine a more ideal location for storage in the sunshine state and Stanwell’s involvement speaks volumes to that,” he said.

Brian Restall, Quinbrook’s regional leader in Australia, says that Supernode will provide a significant economic boost to the Moreton Bay region, creating jobs and supporting many local businesses in the shire.

“Today’s announcement is proof that Queensland is still open for business and further repays the trust and confidence that Moreton Bay Regional Council showed in Quinbrook and our Supernode concept from the very beginning,” he said.

Stanwell’s CEO Michael O’Rourke said he was “delighted” to be working with the private sector to boost Stanwell’s ability to provide firmed renewable energy to commercial and industrial retail customers who are looking to decarbonise their operations.

“Battery projects like Supernode enable us to harvest the energy from solar in the middle of the day, and store it for use in the evenings, when demand is highest,” O’Rourke said in a statement.

“The proposed Stage 3 of Supernode will do just that whilst also creating further employment opportunities from the overall site expansion. It’s projects like this that will enable Stanwell to continue to deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for Queensland and the National Electricity Market.”

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is a specialist investment manager focused on the energy transition in the UK, US, and Australia, and has invested nearly $US7 billion equity capital in 40 GW of energy infrastructure assets representing a total transaction value of nearly $US30 billion.

It is also developing the domestic opportunities for Grok Ventures’ ambitious Sun Cable solar, battery and potentially wind project in the Northern Territory.

The AFR Street Talk column on Wednesday said Moelis and Align Capital Partners have been retained to “kick off” a $US100 million ($A157 million) capital raise to fund the development of planned Sun Cable venture, dubbed the Australia-Asia Power Link.

It said a 16-page investment flyer said the funds raised would be used to secure land access and tenure, complete the subsea cable route survey, secure customer offtake agreements, and cover design, engineering, survey and project management fees, among other things.

You can listen to an interview with Quinbrook’s David Scaysbrook on this recent episode of the Energy Insiders podcast here.

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