Developer wins court battle for 500 MW big battery in Rockhampton after council rejection

A 500 megawatt (MW), two hour big battery looks set to go ahead near Rockhampton after all, with a Queensland court overturning a council rejection of the proposal.

The Planning and Environment Court in Brisbane said the project can go ahead provided it redesigns the site to improve firefighting options, beef up the vegetation and acoustic buffers, and include better stormwater and flood plans. 

What is less clear is whether the Central BESS still needs to go through the state SARA planning process, a question developer Acenergy has been contacted over.

But in the final hearing on October 20, Judge Nicole Kefford also noted the reluctance of the four locals who joined against the appeal to accept the final outcome.

“We went to all the mediation but the whole time… we don’t agree with it. We don’t agree with their experts. We do have local knowledge, it’s too close to houses,” said Colleen Cooling during the October hearing, a Bouldercombe resident who’d joined the appeal.

“We acknowledge that Ace Energy [sic] have made changes, but I’m of the opinion that so many changes have been made the whole development should go back to the public so everyone can see what’s been changed and what’s going to happen.”

Mikaela Cooling said she rejects the development, “but I feel no other way other than agreeing. I’ve felt like my hands are tied and I’m forced to negotiate, I’m out-resourced and pressured into discussions that I don’t agree with.”

The four Bouldercombe locals were unhappy, but felt the options were to agree to minor changes to the project or go to trial, which they said was too high a financial and time hurdle.

It was a view Kefford disagreed with, saying self-represented litigants could and did win in her courtrooms and the question is one of where people chose to spend their time and resources.

Rejection

The Central BESS project is one of three in development around the Bouldercombe substation, just to the north of the town of the same name

But neither the citizens of the town nor the Rockhampton Regional Council have been inclined to accept the newcomers, focusing on Acenergy’s proposal which sits 617m from the nearest house.

The nearest residence, at the bottom of the image, is the topmost part of Bouldercombe town. Lot 1 is the Bouldercombe substation. Lot 3 is Genex’s operating 50 MW ‘Big Bessie’ battery. Lot 2 is the site of a proposal for a 300 MW, two hour battery by Potentia Energy. Image: Central BESS planning application.

Acenergy’s big battery attracted a total of 377 submissions, according to council minutes from its 10 December 2024 meeting when it rejected the planning application. 

Despite a recommendation from council planners to use its discretion to approve the battery “even though the development does not comply with an aspect of the assessment benchmarks”, the council rejected it for not perfectly complying with those planning rules. 

The first vote split the council 3-4, but after a 10 minute adjournment the nays had it with a unanimous rejection of Acenergy’s proposal. 

Renew Economy has contacted Rockhampton Regional Council mayor Tony Williams and deputy mayor Drew Wickerson, who both originally voted in favour of the Central BESS, for comment on why they switched to a no. 

“The proposed development would cause fragmentation of good agriculture land. The proposed development lacks a robust bushfire management plan and places too much reliance on volunteers as first responders. The proposed development lacks end of life plan,” the minutes said in the reasons for rejection. 

The councillors also had problems with noise, visual and environmental impacts from the development.

Six weeks later, developer Acenergy hit the Planning & Environment Court with an appeal, calling the rejection “erroneous and unreasonable”.

The appeal said the council could in fact overcome some of the tensions with zoning rules by proposing its own conditions. 

But while niggles with compliance with zoning and other planning frameworks was officially blamed for the rejection, the 327 “properly made” submissions and 50 “not properly” made may have had something to do with it. 

The council planners listed 18 different concerns, covered the gamut of noise levels, the risk of not being able to insure homes in the town, the ‘mental anguish” caused by fear of the battery possibly catching fire, leaching chemicals into watercourses, or making noise, to worries that regional council assessment benchmarks aren’t up to the task of dealing with big battery applications. 

Submitters were also extremely worried that the presence and visual impact of a big battery wasn’t suited to a rural area.

This is despite the fact that between the battery projects at the town lies the Bouldercombe substation and Genex’s ‘Big Bessie’ 50 MW Bouldercombe battery (pictured above in the feature image), which has been operating since 2023.

Potentia Energy’s 300 MW solar project, which was approved three years ago, is being built behind the substation. 

It will no doubt have watched the outcome of this court case closely, given it is asking the Rockhampton Regional Council to approve its 300 MW, four hour Capricornia battery – which is directly across the road from Acenergy’s Central BESS.

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