UK battery developer unveils biggest SA project and “multi-gigawatt” Australia plans

UK energy storage developer Pacific Green has made a dramatic entry into the Australian energy market with plans for one of the nation’s biggest battery project’s yet – a 500MW, three-hour battery energy storage system on South Australia’s Limestone Coast.

Pacific Green’s 0.5GW/1.5GWh Limestone Coast Energy Park, unveiled on Thursday, would be biggest big battery in South Australia – and trumps the previous “biggest” battery project just a day after that was unveiled by Denmark’s CIP.

The company says it has secured exclusive rights to a strategically located site in the state’s south east, across from an existing substation that feeds into the Heywood Interconnector, that links South Australia and Victoria.

This puts the proposed battery in a doubly strategic position, in a state that has been rapid-firing renewable energy generation and supply records, including last month’s new high for “potential” share of wind and solar – a stunning 264 per cent of state electricity demand.

That number, as RenewEconomy reported, is a combination of dispatched renewables, which made up 137.5 per cent of state demand – with the excess either exported to Victoria or stored in batteries – and “curtailed” wind and solar, which on its own reached 126.5 per cent.

South Australia averages 71.5 per cent wind and solar – the most in the world – and regularly produces enough rooftop solar to meet all of state demand. Pacific Green is looking at that rooftop solar market for bulk storage.

Pacific Green says the location of the proposed Limestone Coast Energy Park means it would be able to charge and discharge excess renewable energy to and from Victoria, via its access to the interconnector.

“Our Limestone Coast Battery Energy Park can act as a load during the day, increasing the viability of even more solar and wind generation, whilst shifting energy to the times it is most valuable in the evening peak,” said Joel Alexander, Pacific Green’s managing director of Australia.

“This momentum allows us to accelerate progress towards South Australia achieving 100% net renewables by 2030.”

The Limestone Coast project is currently going through a development application with the South Australian government, the company says, with construction scheduled for 2024.

The hope is that it will be the “first of several” for Pacific Green, with plans to build a “multi-gigawatt platform” across the country.

A second development, proposed for Portland in Victoria, currently sized at 1GW/2.5GWh is said to have project rights already secured and development approval expected to begin in the first quarter of 2024.

Pacific Green had its start in the marine industry developing and installing technology to scrub carbon from shipping emissions. It has also dabbled in concentrated solar technologies and in 2021 moved into energy storage in a strategic partnership with battery supplier Shanghai Electric.