Storage specialist Eku Energy is seeking federal approval for two new four hour batteries, one in New South Wales (NSW) and one near the site of an old coal mine in Victoria.Â
The Wongalea battery is one of five clustered around the Armidale substation, which is inside the New England renewable energy zone, and which the developer plans to link to via an underground 132 kilovolt (kV) cable.
All up, there are three other batteries with development applications underway or approved around the substation, according to the initial scoping report. There would have been four, but Neoen has pulled its planning application for the 100 MW / 200 MWh Earthorpe project.
Eku Energy expects to have the 300 megawatt (MW), 1200 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery in the market by 2028.
The Wongalea site, which is next door to a historic abattoir and backs onto a picturesque waterway, showed no signs of any ‘matters of national environmental significance’ (MNES), the plants and animals the EPBC process is set up to protect.
“Overall, there was a failure to detect any MNES during targeted surveys,” the EPBC referral says.
“Comprehensive targeted surveys were undertaken during Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM) assessments… and included small area 10m parallel field traverses, habitat evaluation, secondary evidence and active searches (SAT), amphibian survey, diurnal bird survey, stag watch, motion detection cameras, spotlight and torch searches, microbat call recording and analysis, and koala spot assessment technique.”
The surveys were looking for bluegrass, McKie’s stringybark, narrow-leaved black peppermint and hawkweed, and concluded there was potential for the latter two but no signs of any of the plants were found.
They were also looking for 10 species of birds and animals that, given their habits, could use the area. These included brown tree-creepers, swift parrots, a spotted-tail quoll, koalas and the grey-headed flying fox.
The referral also pointed out that relying on modelling that uses native vegetation mapping would not have worked on this site, as there were “inconsistencies” between the actual vegetation seen on the site and the extent the computer modeller suggested should be there.
“Native vegetation in the project area exists in a highly modified state, often only exhibiting a greatly reduced and spare array of canopy species over introduced vegetation and pasture grasses, or entirely no indicator species present,” it said.
More battery storage for coal country
Not long after the Wongalea battery opened in the EPBC portal, Eku Energy’s Tramway Road project went public as well.
The 300 MW, 1200 MWh battery is also one of a cluster around a substation, this time at Hazelwood in the energy hub of the Latrobe Valley.
Eku Energy expects to have it running in 2027.
Two coal power stations remain operating in the area, but with the Hazelwood smokestacks spectacularly demolished in 2020 significant capacity opened up for new generation and batteries.
It’s a favourite location for battery developers because of the 500 kV power lines running through the area to serve the region’s coal power industry and, soon, connect Tasmania via the Marinus Link transmission line.
To date, there are five batteries being built, developed, or proposed directly next to the substation and the adjacent Jeeralang gas peaking power plant, and another four operating or being built nearby, according to data tracker Renewmap.
The Hazelwood pit mine, which owner Engie is still trying to work out how to rehabilitate, is to the west as well.
As a result of this level of industrial use, there are not many MNES in the area and none seen on the Tramway Road battery site, although the referral said white-throated needletails and grey-headed flying foxes could theoretically be in the area.
Eku Energy now has seven battery projects lined up in planning processes in Australia, one under construction and one operating.
It sold the 150 MW, 150 MWh Hazelwood battery earlier this year to its partner Engie. Eku Energy is jointly owned by Macquarie Asset Management and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.
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