Solar and battery project proposed for gateway to Snowy Mountains

Philippines-based renewable energy developer Acen Australia has sent another solar-battery project into the New South Wales (NSW) planning pipeline, in this case a 100 megawatt (MW) solar facility and an 80 MW battery to be built near Cooma at the gateway to the Snowy Mountains.

A scoping report submitted to the NSW department of Planning this month suggests that battery will have storage of between two and four hours, depending on market conditions, which will put the size at 160 MWh or 320 MWh.

Acen says the Cooma battery will both support the solar farm and help alleviate the congestion in the ACT/southern NSW transmission lines that has been identified by state-owned grid company TransGrid last year.  The company hopes to begin construction on the project in 2027 and have it operating by late 2028..

This battery project is the fourth Acen has put through the NSW process. It is nearing completion of what will be – at least for a time – the biggest solar farm in Australia, the 720 MW New England project that is being built over two stages.

Acen plans to build a massive battery next to that solar project, sized at a whopping 1,400 MW and 2.8 GWh, or two hours of storage.

The company is also planning for the 600MW/1200 MWh Birriwa battery and a 200 MW / 200 MWh battery next to the 400 MW Stubbo solar farm that is also under construction.

Also in the queue for battery backup are the proposed Naragamba, Deeargee and Axedale solar farms. 

The Cooma area is currently attracting a lot of interest for renewables projects, as there are four within a 42km radius of the city.

The 150MW Billilingra solar farm, the 100 MW Monaro solar farm and the 150 MW Coonerang wind farm are all within 30km and at preparing environment impact stages, while the 113 MW Boco Rock wind farm is operational and has approval for up to 106 MW stage two expansion. 

And of course, just 80km away, is the massive $12 billion Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project, still struggling after huge cost overruns and lengthy delays.

Acen is the energy arm of the powerful Ayala Group, one of the biggest companies in the Philippines and which has interests in a range of different industries. It fully entered Australia in 2021 when it bought out local partner UPC Renewables – the original developer of the Cooma project. 

Since then it has landed a string of projects, and its portfolio also includes the partnership with the Yindjibarndi people in the Pilbara for up to 3GW of wind, solar and battery storage. It is currently building the 400 MW Stubbo solar farm and BESS in NSW and the  190 MW Axedale solar farm in Victoria.

In the pipeline are a handful of NSW projects covering the 600 MW Birriwa, 320 MW Narragamba, and 320 MW Deeargee solar farms, and the proposed 800 MW, 12-hour Phoenix pumped hydro project.