Australia’s biggest battery project is about to get a lot bigger, and will be first to 1 GW and 5 GWh

The biggest battery storage project under development in Australia – the Supernode facility in the outskirts of Brisbane – is about to get even bigger, and is likely to be the first to reach 1 gigawatt (GW) and 5 gigawatt hours (GWh) in capacity.

The first 260 megawatt (MW) stage of the Supernode project was energised late last month, and the owner Quinbrook Infrastructure has contracts locked in with Origin Energy and Stanwell Corp for a total of 760 MW and 3,070 MWh, a mix of two and four-hour configurations.

Quinbrook is now expecting to add a fourth stage with an eight-hour configuration, likely sized at 250 MW and 2,000 MWh that will take its total capacity to more than 1 GW, 5 GWh – more than 10 times the capacity of the original Tesla big battery at Hornsdale, and nearly 40 times its storage.

Newly appointed global CEO Brian Restall says battery storage – including when linked with large scale solar projects – remains a compelling technology because of the improvements in efficiency and density, and despite the recent jump in lithium ion prices.

Quinbrook is using CATL batteries for the Supernode project and will be introducing a new version of its big battery product in the eight-hour project addition.

In an interview with Renew Economy, Restall says there are economies of scale, and economies from the way the battery is used.

“It’s very slow to charge and discharge. It takes twice as long as four-hour battery, but that four-hour battery needs cooling systems and the eight hour battery, because you charge and discharge slowly, you’re not actually heating the cell chemistry up as much.

“That means that you don’t need the chiller system like you do with the faster batteries. And that means that you don’t have as much parasitic load. It can cool with ambient air temperature. That’s (saving) 3% parasitic load every day. It’s a big deal.

“It means that instead of the air conditioning unit that you need in other units, you can actually fit more batteries, so you get more energy density, and because you’re charging and discharging slower, you get a longer warranty from the equipment supply. So all of those things add up to making it really cost effective.”

Restall, like others, believes solar and battery hybrids are reaching a “tipping point” in terms of being a firmed energy supply, as indicated by their recent success in the latest generation tender under the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme.

He says the Supernode battery will be mostly focused on meeting bespoke contracts with Origin and Stanwell, and well position to soak up rooftop solar that is pushing the state’s minimum demand to ever lower levles.

But the says it is the combination of solar and batteries that will make the difference – it underpins their planned polysilicon export factory in the new Landsdown eco-industrial zone near Townsville, and other projects it is planning in NSW and Queensland.

Combining a solar plant and a big battery can deliver 16 hours of firmed energy each day – perfect for a manufacturing facility running two shift a day.

“You’ve got eight hours of sun. So for eight hours of sunshine, you export one megawatt, you charge the battery fate for one megawatt, and then you dispatch when it’s not sunny,” he says.

“That makes it the lowest cost marginal megawatt that we can we think of now, that combination beats onshore wind, it definitely beats offshore wind. And, you know, it is the lowest cost marginal megawatt that combination.”

Restall says Quinbrook is not fazed by the new energy roadmap released by the Queensland state government, saying the minister is right to focus on affordability and planning issues. “It is very consistent with our with our own investment mandate,” he says.

See also: Australia’s 10 biggest battery storage projects – and what they are paid to do

And: Big Battery Storage Map of Australia

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