Spanish energy giant unveils two huge battery storage projects in Australia

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has revealed two new battery storage projects in Australia – its biggest yet in the country – that will take its total capacity to more than 1,500 gigawatt hours.

The new batteries are a 250 megawatt (MW)/ 500 megawatt hour (MWh) Gin Gin project near Bundaberg in Queensland – although its EPBC application describes it only as a 500 MW project – and the 270 MW, 1,080 MWh Kingswood project in New South Wales (NSW).

To date, Iberdrola’s non-gas firming portfolio has been on the smaller side, making up just a fraction of the company’s 2.4 GW of installed renewables in Australia. 

It owns and operates the 25 MW / 52 MWh Lake Bonney battery next to its wind farm of the same name in South Australia, and contracts the 50MW / 75MWh Wallgrove grid battery in Western Sydney. It also has the 72 MW, 144 MWh Smithfield battery in Western Sydney under development. 

“Iberdrola Australia is developing a portfolio of batteries in the National Electricity Market… these proposed batteries will help manage the intermittency of our low-cost wind and solar generators,” says Iberdrola Australia chairman and CEO Ross Rolfe, AO.

“This combined portfolio allows us to provide reliable supplies of affordable green energy to Australian businesses. We are continuing to collaborate with state agencies, the relevant councils and communities to ensure the developments create shared value for the host communities.”

Refurbing cattle land with a BESS

The grid-firming Gin Gin project will be near the banks of Lake Monduran, and the company says it’s going through a “rigorous” Bundaberg Regional Council planning process since June. 

It will be the first large scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in the area, with only a community battery and a proposal for a firming system to be attached to the 56 MW Childers solar farm nearby. 

The location, 7.64 hectares of cattle grazing land, is near the Gin Gin substation.

“The BESS may be able to provide system strength services at the Gin-Gin node, which has been identified as having a system strength shortfall by AEMO,” Iberdrola says in its EPBC application. 

“As the [Queensland electricity] system transitions from thermal plant to distributed renewable generation, this localised provision of system strength will ensure that the network remains stable and resilient in operation for the benefit of all network users.”

If the battery is approved, Iberdrola wants to start building Gin Gin in 2025 and have it operational in late 2026.  

The project is now open for comment under the EPBC process (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act), because while the 7.64 hectare site is mainly cattle grazing land, it’s also home to native eucalypts near a creek.

However, there are no threatened or near-threatened wildlife living or migrating through the site, according to an environmental assessment. 

Taking on Tamworth

The Kingswood BESS was originally proposed as a 1000 MWh, two hour battery, but since the scoping report was finished in late 2023 it’s been resized with a smaller connection point and four hours of storage, as many new battery projects are sized./

Initially, grid batteries installed in Australia were built to play in the frequency control and ancillary services (FCAS) arena and network support and so required little storage.

But now developers are looking to longer duration batteries that can make money from more of the hours-long peak demand periods when prices are high. 

The Kingswood battery will be to the south of the Tamworth substation just outside the proposed New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), and was originally proposed to be built in two 250 MW stages. 

“There is an increasing need for battery storage to “firm” (make reliable and consistent) weather-dependent renewable sources so that energy supply can respond to consumer demand,” Iberdrola says in its NSW planning application. 

“All coal fired power plants in NSW are scheduled for closure within the next 20 years and firmed renewables are the lowest cost option to replace ageing coal power stations.”

Iberdrola hopes to have construction underway in 2025 and operations to start in 2026. 

However, the planning process could be challenging, given it’s the homeground of anti-renewables firebrand and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce.

Tamworth is a hot spot for battery projects and residents are already becoming anxious about the number of batteries proposed to ring the substation, according to local newspaper the Northern Daily Leader in May. 

The 300MW / 1,200MWh four hour Calala BESS is just to the north of the substation, but the Kingswood and the 200 MW / 400 MWh Tamworth battery are directly next to each other and across a road from the substation.

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