China’s Envision Energy is poised to announce a number of major new wind and battery projects in Australia, as it continues its push into a market previously dominated by a handful of global market giants.
Envision has already landed two significant wind projects in Australia – for Fortescue’s landmark Nullagine wind project in the Pilbara which is deploying unique “self lifting” turbine technology, and for Neoen’s Narrogin wind farm, also in Western Australia.
During a webinar hosted by Renew Economy on Wednesday, the company said it was poised to announce a number of new contract wins in Australia, including its first standalone battery, another major wind project, and its first wind and battery hybrid project.
Details of that hybrid project have now emerged in a planning application in Western Australia, where mining company Tronox is looking to establish a new renewable energy park at the site of its Cooljarloo mineral sands mine around 180 km north of Perth, to power that and other mine sites, and to feed into the state’s main grid.
The project application filed with the Dandaragan shire council says the Cooljarloo Energy Park includes plans to deploy 27 Envision EN-182 7.8 megawatt turbines, totalling 156 MW, and an eight-hour battery that will be sized at 169 MW and 1,447 MWh.
“The Proposal provides utility-scale renewable energy generation infrastructure that will contribute to Western Australia’s energy transition, reducing reliance on fossil fuel generation and providing renewable electricity to Tronox’s Western Australian operations and the SWIS,” Tronox says in its application.
“These facilities support network stability, energy affordability, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and broader decarbonisation objectives.”
The wheatbelt area around Dandaragan is a major focus for large scale renewable energy projects, because of its excellent wind and solar resources, and the state government has just announced major new contracts to boost the transmission capacity that had hindered the development of new projects until now.
The new wind farm and battery will be connected to the nearby Cataby sub-station, which is also being targeted by the likes of Alinta Energy, which is looking to build a 400 MW gas fired peaking plant nearby.
Tronox says the site for the renewable energy park has already been “highly modified” by the mineral sand mining activities and rehabilitation projects.
In the webinar, Envirion Energy’s head of BESS Doris Spielthenner said the company is seeking grid approvals for a number of projects, including a standalone battery in the National Electricity Market, a wind and battery hybrid, and other projects in South Australia, NSW and Victoria, as well as W.A.
“We’re super busy at the moment,” added Peter Cowling, Envision Energy’s country head, in the same webinar. “We’re still recruiting. We’re still talking to a lot of people. We do expect to have more announcements to come.”
The company has already delivered its first turbines to Fortescue’s Nullagine project and the first tower is being mounted on the self-lifting Nabrawind technology, now owned by Fortescue, which reduces costs and accelerates the process.
The first turbines at the Narrogin wind project, which is located east of Perth, are expected in the new year.
Cowling also flagged the potential development of stand-alone energy parks that could accommodate hydrogen or ammonia production – it has opened its first at Chifung in China – as well as data centres.
“There’s been the concept of off-grid, large-scale industrial use of renewables, whether it’s for hydrogen or for other uses, it’s really nice to be actually playing with it and seeing it works,” Cowling says.
“Because potentially this saves an enormous amount of transmission, and that seems to be the hardest thing we can try and do in this country.”
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