Huge battery gets federal green tick to join wind and solar hub proposed for Barnaby’s back yard

Plans to add a big battery energy storage system (BESS) of up to 8,000 megawatt-hours next to a potential 71 turbine wind farm in the back yard of federal National Party MP and chief renewables detractor Barnaby Joyce have been cleared by the federal government.

The Ace Power project proposes to develop an up to 1,000 megawatt (MW) BESS, with between four and eight hours of energy storage, at Salisbury Plains in New South Wales, within the proposed boundaries of the state’s New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).

The big battery is being proposed as part of the hybrid renewables Hillview Energy Hub, which would include a 200–300 megawatt (MW) wind farm and a 250-300 MW large-scale solar farm, and installed around 12 km south-east of Uralla.

In a noticed published earlier this week, it was determined that the project is not a controlled action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, clearing it for development at the federal government level.

Referral documents published on the federal government’s EPBC portal say the Hillview Eastern Hub Firming Battery project will be located around 11 km south-east of Uralla, adjacent to the substation being proposed by the NSW government’s EnergyCo. The plan is for the EHFB to connect to EnergyCo’s Easting Firming substation.

The documents also note that each of the proposed components of the while the Hillview Energy Hub – solar, wind and BESS – are independent projects that “could operate in the absence of the other projects.” But their co-location is proposed “to realise potential development and operational advantages.”

Ace Power in November last year submitted for approval its plans for the wind component of the Hillview Hub, shooting for a share of the 8GW the highly coveted New England REZ is expected to host, according to EnergyCo.

The Hillview site is east of Kentucky, a town that fought hard for years against one of the only two other surviving wind farm proposals in the area, Neoen’s Thunderbolt.

To the north is the site of Ark Energy’s shelved 340 MW Doughboy wind farm, cancelled after landowners apparently changed their minds about hosting the project. 

Vestas’ giant 730 MW Winterbourne wind farm to the east has been the subject of vociferous and sometime unhinged attacks by local MP Barnaby Joyce and his wife Vicky Campion. The developer recently made a series of changes to the design to mitigate the impact.

And in February, a 320 megawatt (MW) solar farm and 300MW/780MWh big battery proposed by TotalEnergies for a site south of Tamworth was given the final all clear to go ahead, despite more than 100 public objections sending it to the Independent Planning Commission.

Last month, one of three other major energy hubs proposed for the New England REZ – the “north” energy hub – was moved to the site of an Origin Energy wind project to lessen the impact on private landowners.

See Renew Economy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia for more information.

Want the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to our free daily newsletter.