New four-hour big battery seeks green tick for Queensland coal country

A new four-hour big battery proposed for Queensland coal country has joined the queue for assessment by the federal government, under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

The up to 440 megawatts (MW) and 1760 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system (BESS) is being proposed for development by Acen Australia in Lilyvale in Queensland’s Central Highlands region, 52 km north-east of Emerald.

EPBC referral documents say the Lilyvale BESS proposes to install 512 battery containers, 128 inverters and 128 medium voltage power stations and associated electrical and control equipment in a project area spanning roughly 151 hectares.

Within that area, Acen says the disturbance footprint of the BESS will be around 21 hectares and located entirely on land with non-remnant vegetation and that has been historically cleared or altered for agricultural practices. There are also existing mineral extraction licenses and granted mining leases over the project area.

“The surrounding area is dominated by existing coal mine operations to both the north and south,” the documents say, nothing the project area is located 3.4 km northeast of the Bowen Basin coalfields and Gregory/Crinum Mine and just 1 km south of multiple coal mine sites, including Mancala Oaky Creek North, Oaky Creek North and Aquila.

The referral also notes that the battery would connect to the existing Lilyvale substation operated by Powerlink, which is located around 1.5 km south of the proposed project.

To the north of the proposed Acen BESS is FRV Australia’s 100 MW Lilyvale Solar Farm, which first powered up in 2019.

A few kilometres north-west of the Acen project, a 400 MW 2,000 MWh BESS is being proposed by Atmos Renewables, with a development application submitted to the state government a couple of months ago, according to RenewMap.

RenewMap also displays a 215 MW PV project by Renewable Energy Developments called the Gregory Solar Farm, which is recorded as having secured EPBC approval for construction adjacent to the Lilyvale BESS, but its development application has been withdrawn.

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