First of 444 Tesla megapacks installed at Melbourne’s giant battery project

Installation of the first of 444 Tesla Megapack battery systems is underway at the first stage of the 600MW Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub in Victoria, one of the biggest grid-scale batteries in Australia.

Victorian premier Jacinta Allan and state energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio marked the milestone at the huge project with a visit to the site in Melbourne’s west where, once completed, will total 1.6 gigawatt-hours of energy storage.

The Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub is significant for more than just its size – it is the first project from the State Electricity Commission’s initial $1 billion investment as part of the newly rebooted SEC’s target of 4.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy generation and storage projects.

“The SEC’s big battery will deliver 23 per cent of Victoria’s 2030 storage capacity target,” D’Ambrosio said on Wednesday. “With large amounts of solar and wind coming online, batteries will be able to suck it up and dispatch it when needed.”

The SEC in December announced a deal with renewables developer Equis Australia to collaborate on the funding for the MREH battery project at Melton, on the western outskirts of Melbourne.

The big battery will be made up of three different 200MW components, two of them with two hours of storage and one with fours of storage duration.

A further stage of development, which plans to tap into another three 200MW connection points already approved for the site, could be even bigger because it may include 12-hours of storage delivered by so-called flow batteries.