Construction begins on new big battery next to one of Australia’s oldest wind farms

Construction has begun on a new 130 MWh big battery that is located next to one of Australia’s oldest wind farms.

Pacific Blue, formerly known as Pacific Hydro, says it is building a 60 MW, 130 MWh grid scale battery at Clements Gap, near Port Pirie in South Australia, next to the 57 MW Clements Gap wind farm that was built in 2010.

The new battery is one of a number of new battery storage projects being built in South Australia as the state makes the next leap from around 75 per cent renewables (wind and solar) to its newly fast tracked target of 100 per cent net renewables by 2030.

Other battery projects under construction in South Australia include Neoen’s Blyth battery and Zen Energy’s Templers battery, while Origin has flagged a battery project at Templers Creek and Enel Green Power is considering a battery at the Bungala solar farm.

South Australia already has four operating big batteries – at Hornsdale, Lake Bonney, Dalrymple North and Torrens Island, with another awaiting commissioning at Tailem Bend. Many other battery projects are in the pipeline awaiting development approval, contracts or financial close.

The Clements Gap battery, however, is the first for Pacific Blue, which was one of the first major renewable energy developers in Australia and has 665 MW of operating wind, solar and hydro assets. After a lengthy pause in new projects it now says it has a pipeline of more than 2.5 GW of new renewables and storage projects.

Pacific Blue was founded in Melbourne in 1992, but in 2016 was bought – and renamed – by the State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), one of the five major power generation groups in China and the largest solar power generation enterprise in the world. The battery appears to be the first new project since that change of ownership.

“The focus of Australia’s energy transition so far has overwhelmingly been on the generation of renewable energy – storing that energy and deploying it to support grid stability is the missing piece and a critical component of Australia’s renewable energy transition,” CEO Dominic Capomolla said in a statement.

State energy minister Tom Koutsantonis says the battery project will help reduce peak wholesale prices by increasing the amount of available power when it is needed most.

“It is encouraging to see a new company joining the others who have already installed or are building grid-scale batteries,” he said.

“This will increase competition in the South Australian market for ancillary services and in the wholesale market. It will assist the whole state as we transition to cleaner, more affordable and reliable energy.”

See also Renew Economy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia for all projects operating, under construction and planned.