“Reduced appetite for solar:” Giant hybrid project slashes PV component by half as it seeks green tick

The developer of what was once touted as the biggest solar-battery hybrid project to gain grid connection approval in Australia has slashed the PV component in half as it seeks to gain a federal green tick for its proposal.

The UK-based Elements Green announced last year that it had gained formal technical clearance for grid connection for its Eurimbula project near the industrial and port city of Gladstone, in Queensland, which it regards as its Australian flagship project.

The project comprised two 348 megawatt (MW-dc) solar PV components – supplied by SMA – and two 333 MW (2Hr, or 666 MWh) grid-forming battery components, which the company said at the time made it the largest hybrid project in the country to achieve AEMO 5.3.4A connection approval.

“Securing the 5.3.4A letter brings us significantly closer to breaking ground this year,” Toby Roberts, the country director Australia at Elements Green, said in a statement in June.

That “breaking ground” has not yet happened, as the project has yet to gain approval under the federal government’s EPBC process. And now the company says the project will be cut in half, in terms of solar capacity and footprint, which it hopes will help with its environmental approvals.

“Commercial discussions with industry counterparts have highlighted a reducing appetite for contracting for solar-based energy,” it says in an application to the EPBC for a variation of the proposal.

“EPCo (Eurimbula Project Co) still consider the solar to be an essential part of the project, however the reduction in size / solar arrays, reduces potential negative views held with regard to the large size of the project.

The company says the revised proposal reduces the proposed land disturbance disturbance to 545.4 hectares, down from 1,173 ha, with a corresponding reduced impact on threatened species and ecological communities.

“EPCo has listened to the concerns voiced in the community and reduced the project footprint to minimise impacts on MNES (Matters of National Environmental Significance) as far as possible.

Elements Green also notes that the reduced capital required to complete the project under the revised layout will also help the project secure appropriate finance to achieve completion.

The area around Gladstone has become a hot-bed for solar and solar-battery projects, all keen to tap into the huge energy demands of the city’s smelters and refineries, and other big industry, particularly with the ageing Gladstone coal fired power generator due to close in early 2029.

These include projects already with a contract to supply Rio Tinto’s smelter and refineries, including the gigawatt scale Upper Calliope solar project, and the Smoky Creek and Guthrie’s Gap solar-battery hybrids (totalling 600 MW, and 2,400 MWh).

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

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