Builder of Australia’s biggest battery project says outlook uncertain as new orders plunge to zero

The builder of Australia’s biggest battery storage project has warned that the outlook for the sector is uncertain, thanks to global political uncertainty and the threat of US tariffs, and says its order book for new equipment fell to zero in the first quarter of 2026.

The Finland-based Wärtsilä is rated as one of the top six battery storage providers in the world, and in Australia has landed several key contracts, including those for Origin Energy’s Eraring battery, right next to the country’s biggest coal-fired generator.

The Eraring battery is now committed to four stages totalling more than 700MW and 3,180 MWh, making it the biggest in the country when the final stage in commissioned in 2027, although it may soon be overtaken by other expanding battery projects.

See: The 15 biggest utility battery projects in Australia – and what they will do for the grid

Wärtsilä has already built the Torrens Island battery in South Australia for AGL, and is currently building the Bennetts, Blind Creek and Bungama batteries, but it says it received no new orders in the first three months of 2026.

“On storage, we have a challenge,” CEO Håkan Agnevall said in the company’s 1st quarter earnings call. “There is no doubt. And the challenge is order intake. I mean we basically had no new order intake on the equipment side in storage.

“We’ve also been very clear that we need immediate order intake. Otherwise, we will have a loss-making second half of the year in energy storage.”

The company, which also operates in the traditional energy business and has a sizeable marine division, expects 2026 to end stronger than 2025, but that’s only because the last 12 months has been weak effectively since the start of the new Trump administration.

“The current high level of external uncertainties continues to make forward-looking statements challenging,” President and CEO Håkan Agnevall said in a statement.

The company says the rapidly emerging data centre market presents an opportunity, but it sees battery storage as a small player overall, focused on its unique ability to respond as quickly to the rapid demand changes of data centres themselves.

“For our storage team have data centers as a potential new opportunity that we are looking at, so to say. We haven’t stepped in fully yet, but we are looking at it.”

But in the interim it seems boom times for its fossil fuel power business, with two major contracts signed up for data centre supplies.

Agnevall says data centres want power quickly and the best option is with a fleet of fast-start gas engines that it specialises in. Some orders, he says, will be in the gigawatt scale, others smaller.

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