Financial close reached for four-hour big battery to be built next to Australia’s biggest wind farm

Portugal-based renewable and storage developer TagEnergy says it has secured financial close for its Golden Plains battery energy storage system (BESS) in Victoria which will be built next to the biggest wind farm in the country.

The four-hour 150-megawatt (MW), 600 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery storage facility will be built adjacent to the partially complete 1.33 gigawatt (GW) Golden Plains wind farm, approximately 60 kilometres north-west of Geelong.

The first stage of the wind farm – 756 MW – is now in full operation and is already the biggest in the country, and construction is continuing on the 577 MW second stage.

TagEnergy committed to building the 150 MW/600 MWh storage facility last month, signing a balance of plant contact with Consolidated Power Projects and lining up Tesla to supply 168 Megapack 2XL battery systems for the project.

The company followed this up with a long term “virtual tolling” deal with the federal government owned Snowy Hydro for most of the battery capacity. Snowy Hydro is also an off-taker for the output of the neighbouring wind farm.

This week, TagEnergy announced on its LinkedIn account that it had secured financial close thanks to funding support from Westpac, Bank of China, and Siemens Financial Services.

Signing financial close is the last major milestone for TagEnergy before it begins building the Golden Plains BESS, which is currently expected to take around two years to be built.

“With all construction and supplier contracts already in place with AusNet, VicGrid, Consolidated Power Projects and Tesla, we’re ready to start building the 150MW/600MWh facility – a cornerstone addition to Australia’s largest onshore wind farm,” the company said.

“It’s a great example of how large-scale batteries and virtual storage can help move us closer to a more secure and flexible supply of electricity for a clean energy future.”

Once completed by mid-2027, Golden Plains will be the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere and will generate enough electricity to supply the equivalent of 9 per cent of Victoria’s energy needs.

The addition of the Golden Plains BESS will help balance supply and demand on the grid and provide critical capacity during peak demand periods, according to TagEnergy’s managing partner for Australia, Andrew Riggs, speaking in November.

“It will optimise the use of renewable electricity as we continue to accelerate the energy transition,” he said. “And it will enable more adaptable and reliable access to renewable, cost-effective energy for families, homes and business.”

Riggs also told Renew Economy last month that TagEnergy is already looking at adding a second phase of the battery around the same size.

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