Ampyr Australia has added another big battery to its burgeoning development pipeline in Australia, after buying a 270 megawatt, eight-hour project proposed for construction in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf region.
Singapore-backed Ampyr said on Thursday that it has agreed to buy the Davenport Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) from SA-based Green Gold Energy, but will develop it under a new name and in a new location.
The new name of the project is the Northern Battery and the new location is the site of South Australia’s last coal generator, the Northern Power Station, that was switched off in 2016 by its owner Alinta Energy after more than 31 years of operation.
“Green Gold had selected a site, and when we started to engage with them, we had a look at the site, and you know, it was a good site, but we actually felt we could make it a great site by relocating it to the side of the actual former power station there,” Ampyr CEO Alex Wonhas told Renew Economy on Thursday.
The 520 megawatt (MW) plant’s retirement rid South Australia of the last of its coal-fired power generators and signalled the state’s intention to become the nation-leading and world-leading renewables powerhouse that it is today, with an average share of 75 per cent wind and solar and a goal to reach 100 per cent net renewable by 2027.
Under the agreement, Ampyr says it will build a grid-forming, utility-scale battery at site of the decommissioned coal plant, using pre-existing infrastructure to transform it into “a pillar of South Australia’s renewable energy future.”
“The Northern Battery represents more than just a storage development; it’s a symbol for the energy transition by transforming a former coal-fired power station into a long-duration storage project,” says Wonhas.
Wonhas is the former senior executive at the Australian Energy Market Operator who led the development of its Integrated System Plan, the multi-decade planning blueprint to shift the country’s main grid from coal to renewables, and is a strong believer in the benefits of battery storage.
The company’s first big projects in Australia, as Renew Economy reported in February, are two gigawatt scale projects at Wellington in the central west of NSW and near Bannaby, south of Sydney.
In September, Ampyr’s second stage Bulabul battery near Wellington was named among the winners of the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme, one of 16 battery storage projects with a total of more than 4 GW and nearly 16 GWh of storage capacity.
Wonhas says the revitalisation of existing industrial infrastructure through projects like the Northern Battery will play a critical function in stabilising South Australia’s grid and providing enough firming for the state’s abundant solar and wind resources.
“This is the energy future,” Wonhas wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday morning.
“South Australia is one of the global benchmarks in renewable generation. The next phase of its energy transition will be dominated by energy storage, not generation,” he added in a statement.
“The accelerated deployment of long-duration grid-scale batteries is critical to strengthening system reliability and security while reducing consumer costs.”
Wonhas says the relocation to next to the coal plant has reduced costs and allowed faster access to market. And while it has required Ampyr to refine the planning approval process, it did not impact the battery’s grid connection approval, because it is still connecting to the same network.
That said, the relocation has meant restarting the planning approval process. But Wonhas says South Australia has a “very good planning regime” and the new location is a “purpose built” energy site, having once hosted a coal plant.
“That’s what we like about it,” Wonhas tells Renew Economy. “I think it’s nice to see that we are, you know, reusing these sites and making sure we use them to provide stability to the system and… [to] really maximise the utilisation of the great renewable resources that are in the state.”
Ampyr says it wants to get construction of the Northern Battery underway in the 2026 calendar year, and is engaging closely with the Port Augusta community to ensure it delivers jobs, business opportunities and other lasting benefits.
To this end, a $40,000 Community Benefit Fund will be launched shortly, the company says, to provide direct support for local projects that support the community.
Ampyr says it is also working with the Nukunu Traditional Owners to build a partnership that delivers cultural, economic and social benefits for First Nations people and supports delivery of the battery.
Wonhas says the current plan is to build the battery all in one go, rather than in stages, but that this will depend on the final off-take agreement for the project, which is not quite finalised and the off-taker not yet being made public.
Once it is, he adds, “then it will be built, probably to the needs of of the off-taker, which we’re currently working on.”
If you would like to join more than 28,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, please click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
