RES edges ahead with plans for huge wind, solar and battery storage hub in Victoria

UK-based renewables giant RES has updated its progress on plans to develop a major wind, solar and battery storage facility near Stawell in western Victoria, reporting that work is underway on an Environmental Report ahead of submitting a planning application in mid-2023.

The plans for the Watta Wella renewable energy hub, first unveiled in August of 2021, include a 315MW wind farm, a 62.5MW solar farm and a 400MW/1200MWh big battery.

The project proposes to use some of the biggest wind turbines yet installed in Australia, sized at 7.5MW each and standing 255 metres high (top of blades).

Both the solar farm and the big battery would be located close to the Bulgana sub-station, and the three-hour battery would provide grid services and support more renewable energy capacity in a region that is bursting with wind and solar projects in the pipeline.

See RenewEconomy’s Big Battery Storage Map of Australia

In an update this week, RES says it has been asked to prepare of an Environmental Report for Watta Wella, focusing on potential biodiversity impacts of the project, and how to mitigate these impacts, and factoring in the effects of existing wind farms in the region.

RES says the environmental report will have to be accepted by the Victoria state government before a planning permit application can be made.

In its decision, the Victoria planning department said the project, proposed for the lands of the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk people, had the potential for “significant effects” to some biodiversity values.

“This includes the potential for impacts to habitat, including fragmentation, and potential for collision and cumulative impacts for some listed species such as the Swift Parrot, Powerful Owl, Barking Owl and Eastern Bent Wing Bat,” the decision says.

But it adds that aside from these potential effectsm the overall environmental impact of the project is “unlikely to have the significance or complexity to warrant an environment effects statement.”

RES says it is also awaiting approval under the EPBC Act, a referral for which was lodged in August. That decision is based on the presence and potential impact on listed threatened species and communities or migratory species within the project area.

RES has said it chose the site for Watta Wella for its good wind and solar resources and because of the expected upgrade to the Bulgana substation as part of the western Victoria Transmission Network Project, which will boost grid capacity in the region – although not before around 2025.

Watta Wella would be located immediately north of Neoen’s Bulgana Green Energy Hub which includes a 194MW wind farm and a 20MW/34MWh Tesla battery.