Malaysian developer Gentari poised to start work on first Australia project, a DC-coupled solar battery

Malaysian renewable energy and storage developer Gentari – an offshoot of oil and gas giant Petronas – is set to start work on its first Australian-built project, two years after landing in the country with big ambitions. 

Gentari on Tuesday announced that it has issued a “notice to proceed” on the 243 megawatt (MW) Maryvale solar project and its accompanying 172MW/408MWh (two hour) battery energy storage system (BESS). Work will start this month.

“The Maryvale Solar and Energy Storage Project marks a key step in Gentari’s ongoing efforts,” Gentari chief renewables officer Low Kian Min said in a statement. 

“This project is an important part of our commitment to helping NSW and Australia meet their clean energy goals.”

The Maryvale project is in the Central-West Orana renewable energy zone in NSW and is close to several other solar projects, including Lightsource bp’s 425MW Wellington North and 200MW Wellington solar farms, Ampyr’s and Shell’s 500MW/1000MWh Wellington South battery, and Akaysha Energy’s 415MW/1660MWh Orana battery.

But the Maryvale secret sauce is in its hybrid system. Both BESS and solar farm will be DC-coupled and behind the inverter, allowing the flow of electricity to be smoothed and stored – and helping to alleviate any curtailment.

The project has maximum export capacity of 172MW, and it can import up to 91MW.

The project was one of the first solar-BESS hybrid projects to win a Long Term Energy Storage Agreement (LTESA) through the NSW government auctions. The whole project is set to be launched into the National Energy Market by mid-2027.

PCL Construction has been signed to build the project, while Trinasolar and Contemporary Amperex Technology Australia (CATL) are supplying the equipment. Essential Energy is the local DNSP.

The project is the first build in Australia for Gentari, a wholly-owned renewables subsidiary of Malaysian petro-giant Petronas. It entered Australia in 2023 by buying Wirsol Australia and its 422MW portfolio. 

At the time it announced it had big ambitions to have 8 gigawatts (GW) of assets in the country by 2030 and was positioning itself as a green hydrogen player.

Gentari owns or manages eight solar farms and BESS projects across the east coast, and has two projects under development, the other being the 88MW Barnawartha solar farm and its 64MW/128MWh battery.

See Renew Economy’s Big Battery Map of Australia and its Large Scale Solar Farm Map for more details.