Wednesday 15 March 2017

South Australia to build giant battery storage unit and gas plant

The South Australian Government has unveiled plans to build a battery storage unit with a capacity of 100MW.

It is expected to be Australia’s largest grid scale battery and is part of the state government’s A$550 million (£342m) energy plan.

It is inviting interested national and international companies to build the system that will be able to store renewable energy from the wind and sun and provide capacity when needed during peak times.

The project will be financed by South Australia’s newly-created A$150 million (£93m) Renewable Technology Fund, which will also support large-scale projects including solar, biomass, hydrogen and pumped hydropower.

The state government said: “Over the next fortnight, we’ll test the market to hear what national and international companies have to offer.

“The grid-scale battery will modernise South Australia’s energy grid and begin the transformation to the next generation of renewable energy technologies.”

South Australia also plans to build a government-owned 250MW gas-fired power plant, at a cost of A$360 million (£224m), “to provide emergency back-up power and system stability services”.

It is expected to create at least 630 new jobs.

A new 880MW gas-fired power station was officially opened in the UK this week.