Zen gets green tick for solar and battery project with up to eight hours storage

Plans to build a 100 megawatt (MW) solar farm and a 200 MW battery with between four to eight hours storage near Gympie in Queensland have been waved through the federal government’s EPBC queue, less than a month after being referred for assessment.

In a notice published on Monday, the head of the federal Environment Assessments Queensland Branch said the Zen Energy solar and battery energy storage (BESS) project, called Hookey Creek, had been determined “not a controlled action.”

Plans for Hookey Creek joined the queue for federal environmental assessment in June, seeking the all-clear to build the solar and battery project on grazing land around 23 km north-west of Gympie and 7km south-east of Woolooga.

The project is part of a deal with Taiwanese equity partner HD Renewable Energy Co (HDRE), announced in March, to co-develop around 695 megawatts (MW) of multi-hour big batteries and 100 MW of solar across three Australian states.

Taiwan-listed HDRE, valued at more than $1.1 billion, in November signed up to spend $43 million on a 9.7 per cent stake in the Ross Garnaut-backed Zen, and co-develop and manage a 1.4 gigawatt (GW) solar and storage pipeline through a joint venture dubbed Zebre.

The March deal, backed by $A14 million from HDRE, was to acquire the development rights of four greenfield battery and hybrid solar projects in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland with a total capacity of around 795MW and “potential for further expansion.”

The investment finalised HDRE’s acquisition of 70 per cent of the projects, which it will progress with Zen retaining 30 per cent on the Zebre platform.

A spokesperson from Zebre told Renew Economy on Tuesday that the quick turnaround on a decision from the federal government reflected the care that had been taken with both site selection and design for Hookey Creek.

“Good development avoids damage, so we are pleased that the federal environment department’s decision reinforces this for our Hookey Creek project,” the statement says.

“Storage is at the heart of our strategy that we have communicated to the market.”

From here, Hookey Creek will continue through the state planning process over the next 12 months and is also working on grid connection and council development approvals. The project is on track to start construction in mid 2027 and be completed mid 2029.

The biggest project in Zen Energy’s Zebre joint venture was last week given approval for electricity grid connection in South Australia.

The Solar River project – a 256 MW 2.5 hour battery (650 MWh) and 210 MW solar farm proposed for near Bundey in north-east South Australia – is the JV’s flagship investment, promising between 2.5 up to 8 hours of storage capacity.

“Momentum on Hookey Creek comes close on the heels of the Templers battery, which is within months of being fully operational, and the flagship project of Zebre, the Solar River battery and solar farm,” the spokesperson said.

“In total, ZEBRE will deliver a gigawatt of additional storage capacity for Australia’s needs.”