Quinbrook seals record finance deal to build huge “Supernode” data centre battery

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has sealed a $722 million debt finance deal for its massive Supernode project in south-east Queensland – a deal it says marks Australia’s largest stand-alone battery project financing to date.  

Quinbrook revealed plans back in 2022 to build an 800 megawatt (MW), 2000 megawatt-hours (MWh) battery energy storage system (BESS) to support a huge $2.5 billion data storage centre close to Brisbane.

The “Supernode” battery project proposes to support the data centre, provide dispatchable services to the grid, firm additional renewables capacity, and act as a “backstop” to reduce the risk of power outages in Queensland.

Quinbrook said on Wednesday that it has closed a $A722 million new debt financing for stages 1 and 2 of the project, which combined come to 520 megawatts (MW) / 1856 MWh. 

The financing has been provided by a syndicate of just five lenders, Bank of America, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho Bank and MUFG Bank.

The deal took just five months to start and close, with the “unique location” and an offtake deal with Origin Energy behind strong interest from lenders, Quinbrook Australia leader Brian Restall told Renew Economy.

Capacity in the $1.4 billion, up to four-hour Supernode battery, however, was fully sold well before Quinbrook secured its debt deal, with Origin Energy last year signing up to take all of the capacity for both the first and second stage of the project. 

Queensland state-owned energy company Stanwell Corp will take the output from Stage 3, which brings the full size of the Supernode battery to 760MW / 3096 MWh and slightly above the original potential connection capacity of the site.

Stages 1 and 2 are currently under construction, with Stage 1 due to be finished by the end of 2025 and stage 2 in the second quarter of 2026. 

Quinbrook was once largely focused on international markets, but its gaze is now firmly on Australia with a range of projects underway or in planning stages. 

The investment group says its Supernode site is the last non-flood prone land adjacent to the South Pine central node, and its proximity helps mitigate marginal loss factor and curtailment risk. 

“The successful close of this financing… reflects the robust qualities of the Supernode project as structured by our team, especially the offtake partnership we have agreed with Origin Energy,” Restall said in a statement.

The Supernode is furthest ahead of the Australian developments, but also in the portfolio are the $8 billion polysilicon plant in Gladstone, which has just entered the federal environmental planning queue, and the 750 MW battery Quinbrook added to those plans in December. 

And in 2023, after Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes wrenched control over the Sun Cable project, Quinbrook stepped in to help restart the project. 

Quinbrook’s impressive finance deal for the Supernode compares to that of battery storage developer Akaysha Energy, which last year locked in $650 million to build its four hour Orana battery in New South Wales (NSW) with 11 different funders. 

At the time Akaysha said it was the largest investment in a single battery in the world, backed by a virtual offtake deal for half of the battery capacity with EnergyAustralia.