Neoen starts work on first six-hour battery after giant “solar soaker” completed months ahead of schedule

• Renewable energy and battery storage developer Neoen Australia says it is starting work on its first six-hour big battery, after delivering the country’s biggest battery to date four months ahead of schedule.

The new project is Muchea, around 50 kms north of Perth, which is to be sized at 164 megawatts (MW) and 905 megawatt hours (MWh), and which won an underwriting deal through a federal government Capacity Investment Scheme tender earlier this year.

The six hour battery – which is being designed to add grid stability and to feed power into the market in the evening peaks – compares with the 1.3 hours of storage that featured in Neoen’s first big battery at Hornsdale in South Australia in 2017.

Most of Neoen’s recent battery projects, including the Western Downs, Capital and Blyth projects, have been sized at around two hours of storage, but it recently completed its first four hour battery at Collie, also in Western Australia.

That project, sized at 560 MW and 2,240 MWh over two stages, is currently the biggest completed battery in Australia, and Neoen says it was completed four months ahead of schedule.

The Collie facility on Wednesday starts its two-year contract with the Australian Energy Market Operator, acting as a giant “solar soaker” mopping up excess rooftop PV output in the middle of the day and feeding it into the grid in the evening peaks.

The Collie battery can charge and discharge the equivalent of 20 per cent of the average demand in W.A.’s main grid.

Neoen will use 252 Tesla Megapack 2XL units at the Muchea battery, which will feed into the local substation. UGL has the contract to build it. Neoen also used Tesla technology at its Collie battery. UGL was its contractor.

The Muchea battery was pitched as a 150 MW, 610 MWh facility when it was announced earlier this year as one of four winners of the CIS battery tender that focused on the W.A. grid. But its dimensions have since been upgraded to take advantage of the market opportunity for longer storage, and falling battery costs.

Neoen says the Muchea Battery is expected to deliver 70 new jobs during construction as well as economic opportunities for local businesses. It will contribute over AUD2 million in benefit-sharing for First Nations peoples and the local community across its 20+ year operational lifespan.

“I applaud the dedication of everyone who has brought Collie Battery online so quickly and look forward to Muchea Battery joining it to support the WA grid,” Jean-Christophe Cheylus, the CEO of Neoen Australia, now owned by Brookfield, said in a statement.

Jai Thomas, Energy Policy WA’s coordinator of energy, said the integration of new clean energy generation and battery storage projects is a crucial part of WA’s energy transition and its journey to becoming a renewable energy powerhouse.

The W.A., government recently unveiled a new transmission plan, designed to accommodate 2.5 GW of new renewable capacity to replace the coal fired power stations that are due to retire at the end of the decade.

A number of new wind and battery projects have also been proposed in recent weeks, including a new 2 GW facility from Synergy, Neoen’s 200 MW Narrogin wind project with battery storage, its separate 500 MW Yathroo wind farm with an 8-hour battery, and a 500 MW wind project from Alinta.

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