Victoria has provided fast-tracked planning approvals for massive 1 gigawatt (GW), 2.5 gigawatt-hour (GWh) big battery project near the state’s western industrial town of Portland, and close to its aluminium refinery.
The battery project, which will be split into four 250 MW units with between two hours and four storage each, is being proposed by the UK-based Pacific Energy, which is already developing the first stage of a similar sized project in South Australia.
The Portland battery has been fast-tracked through the state government’s Development Facilitation Program, which launched in April last year and promises a yes or a no from the department of planning within four months.
Pacific Green, which is also building the first 250 MW, 1,000 MWh stage of the Limestone Coast battery further up the coast in South Australia, says the Portland battery will be developed in phases over the next 36 months.
It described the battery as the biggest in Australia, which would be true were it in operation now, but by the time it is finished it will likely be trumped by Origin Energy’s 700 MW, 2,800 MWh Eraring in NSW that is under already construction and due to be complete in 2027.
It said the battery project is strategically positioned within the industrial zoned area, in close proximity to the Portland Aluminium Smelter and the Portland Water Treatment Plant, which will enable it to provide energy security to strategic businesses and augment existing electrical infrastructure.
“Its scale underlines our ambition to become a leading developer in the market and to accelerate the nation’s transition to renewables through a multi-gigawatt platform,” Pacific Green chairman Scott Poulter said in a statement.
“We are pleased that our second Australian asset has secured the support needed to move forward. Drawing on our global expertise in developing energy parks across the UK, Europe and Australia, the Portland project will play a major role in decarbonising Australia’s energy system.”
The state government says it has now fast-tracked 20 renewable energy projects since the first in August last year, worth a total of about $6 billion.
Before this, more than one in five renewable energy project applications ended up stuck in the state’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Most were eventually approved but after significant delays.
“This battery will soak up cheap renewable power during the day and deliver it when demand peaks, powering 345,000 homes and slashing energy bills across the state,” said Victoria energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio in a statement.
Operating and under-development wind projects cling to the transmission line leading to Portland, which is home to massive energy user the Portland Aluminium Smelter – currently supplied by the brown coal generators in the Latrobe Valley.
Nearby are several small operating wind farms, but also the proposed 605 MW Kentbruck wind project and off the coast is the Southern Ocean offshore wind zone.
The Portland go-ahead comes hot on the heels of state approval for the extremely controversial 500 MW, 1,000 MWh Kiewa Valley battery by Trina Solar, located just shy of two kilometres from the Dederang Terminal Station in Dederang, in the Kiewa Valley.
The Portland batteries are expected to be operating in 2028.
Feds use month-old good news bump
The Portland Energy Park is still wading through the federal EPBC process however, after being deemed a controlled action a year ago.
But since the federal election the EPBC process seems to be getting shorter and easier for some solar and battery projects.
Edify Energy’s Nowingi 300 MW solar project and DC-coupled 300 MW, eight-hour battery – one of the biggest solar hybrid projects in the country – was told in August that it would not be deemed a controlled action under the EPBC process.
Nowingi was put into the queue to find out if it needed detailed federal environmental assessment in early July, and found out that it didn’t at the end of August.
But federal environment minister Murray Watt saved the news until this past weekend, closing out a week of revelations that the government released its climate risk report, which found that planning for 3ºC warming was “prudent”, yet has chosen to stick with a modest 2035 emissions target.
The minister’s office used the month-old Nowingi news to talk about what the government has achieved in its second term in office.
“The Albanese government is doing its part by approving these 100 projects [since re-election] right across the country,” Watt said in a statement. “Almost 90 per cent of these approval decisions were delivered on time.”
Watt said good design and site selection meant the Edify project didn’t need to go through the federal process.
The federal government has approved 43 solar farms, 22 onshore wind farms, 13 energy storage systems, 13 infrastructure and exploration projects and 9 transmission projects.
This includes the 900 MW Robbins Island wind project which may yet require a turbine shut down as part of it bird management plan, and the much less controversial 1.3 GW Pottinger Energy Park.
“Our country needs to continue supporting the rapid rollout of renewables to meet our ambitious and achievable 2035 target, and to achieve net zero by 2050,” Watt claimed.
As an eight-hour battery, Nowingi will be possibly the biggest of its type in the country, and rival the partly built Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub as the biggest battery of any type in Victoria in terms of storage, with both at 2,400 MWh, although Portland will beat them both if built at the scale contemplated.
Edify proposes to build a new substation to hook into the 200 kV transmission line running nearby. It is located in a grid once deemed too weak to support the number of solar and wind projects that had been built in the area – earning the sobriquet the Rhombus of Regret.
The rhombus is still in action but, like with planning delays, this too is only for wind projects as the market operator adds new constraints for the big generators just in case a transmission line trips.
Edify Energy CEO John Cole was “delighted” to receive the news Nowingi had been approved. “Nowingi represents a cornerstone in delivering a reliable, affordable, and fully renewable national electricity system, while creating regional construction jobs and investment in north-west Victoria,” he said in a statement.
See also: Big Battery Storage Map of Australia
Listen also to our Energy Insiders interview with Pacific Green CEO Joel Alexander: Energy Insiders Podcast: The changing dynamics of battery storage
