Planning approval has been given for what will be Australia’s biggest battery project, with a specific role to help soak up solar in the middle of the day and replace coal in the evening peak.
The Western Australia state-owned utility Synergy is planning to build the 500 MW, four hour (2,000 MWh) Collie battery, not far from the state’s three remaining coal generators, and says it could be doubled in size to 1,000 MW and 4,000 MWh.
W.A. is in the midst of a vastly accelerated transition plan from fossil fuels to renewables, driven by the realisation that there are huge opportunities in the switch to green energy – for industry, mines and consumers – and that the ageing coal generators are costly, dirty and now unreliable.
The Collie battery received planning approval on Friday from the Regional Joint Development Assessment Panel that is part of the department of planning.
The application says the first phase of the battery will be the flagged 500 MW, 2,000 MWh facility which will be split into two 250 MW, 1000 MWh “sub facilities”. It will be located next to the Collie power station and the Shotts terminal owned by Western Power.
“The proposal is pivotal to Synergy’s energy transition program and represents a generational opportunity to support carbon emissions reduction and secure energy supply,” the application says.
It says this and other batteries are needed to respond to the “solar duck curve” created by the adoption of rooftop solar by more than one third of the state’s households, which is hollowing out demand in the middle of the day, but not solving peak demand issues in the evening.
The battery will be tasked to soak up solar in the middle of the day and store for the evening peaks.
“This shifting of energy has the effect of flattening the ‘Duck Curve’, providing a more stable grid and enabling West Australians to continue to install solar systems and other forms of renewable energy supply,” the applications says.
It is third big battery being built by Synergy, which has already completed the 100 MW, two battery at Kwinana and started construction of the second stage of that facility, which will be sized at 200 MW and four hours (800 MWh).
Alinta is also building a 100 MW, two hour battery at Wagerup, while Neoen is building a 219 MW/867 MWh battery at Collie, not far from the Synergy battery. Neoen also has a permit to expand that facility.
The Synergy battery will take around 22 months to build and involve 800 construction workers. The first stage will comprise 656 battery enclosures and 164 Inverters.
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