Australia is drenched in sunshine more often than not, which makes it an excellent location for solar energy. That’s good. However as extra photo voltaic power will get added, it comes near overwhelming the grid with an abundance of renewable power in the course of the noon hours whereas not being accessible within the late afternoon and early night hours when demand for electrical energy highest. That’s dangerous. Neoen has an answer — huge battery storage services that take in all of that electrical energy and ship it again to the grid later within the day.

The imbalance between provide and demand leads to what is thought within the trade because the “duck curve,” and, because the illustration above reveals, authorities in Western Australia anticipate the imbalance to accentuate in coming years as extra photo voltaic electrical energy will get added, most of it from rooftop photo voltaic techniques.

The important thing to the success of renewable power is to seize most of it when it’s ample and make it accessible to the grid when it’s wanted, a course of generally known as time shifting. Western Australia is exclusive in that its electrical grid shouldn’t be interconnected with these in different Australian states or territories. Partly, that’s due to the large distances between Western Australia and the remainder of the nation, which imply Western Australia is by itself relating to managing its grid.

Till now, Western Australia has relied totally on coal-fired thermal producing stations for the majority of its electrical energy, however as the price of renewable power continues to fall, these coal-powered services have gotten much less worthwhile. To assist take in the huge quantity of solar energy accessible in the course of the day, the Australian Power Market Operator (AEMO), on the request of the Western Australian Coordinator of Power, has authorized a proposal by Neoen to put in a 197 MW battery close to the city of Collie in Western Australia with a 4-hour discharge time.

In keeping with Neoen, the brand new facility will encompass 224 Tesla Megapack 2XL models. It’s the first section of a 1 GW/4 GWh challenge first proposed in December of 2022. The battery can be positioned on land of the Wilman individuals of the Bibbulmun nation within the South West area of Western Australia. It would connect with Western Energy’s Shotts Terminal substation, which is a part of the South-West Interconnected System.

The Collie Battery is Neoen’s sixth massive battery in Australia, bringing its complete Australian storage belongings to over 1.1 GW in operation or beneath building, and additional cementing its place because the nation’s main developer, proprietor, and operator of batteries. It already owns and operates the 300 MW/450 MWh Victorian Large Battery in Geelong and the 150 MW/193.5 MWh Hornsdale Energy Reserve in South Australia. Its 100 MW/200 MWh Capital Battery, 200 MW/400 MWh Blyth Battery, and 200 MW/400 MWh Western Downs Battery are all at the moment beneath building.

A part of the impetus for the brand new battery in Western Australia is that state’s curiosity in offering renewable power to new industries supplying inexperienced hydrogen and different low-carbon merchandise to Australia and the world. Western Australia not too long ago issued a brand new demand forecast that anticipates the necessity for greater than 50 GW of latest wind, photo voltaic, and storage to satisfy these rising calls for for zero-carbon power.

The state’s extra speedy focus, nevertheless, is to supply the required firming capability to permit coal to exit and to assist the rising share of rooftop photo voltaic in Western Australia, which is the world’s largest remoted grid and has no capacity to import or export energy.

Neoen’s Western Australia head Nathan Ling mentioned the corporate recognized a necessity for battery storage a number of years in the past. “I feel this demonstrates that markets are altering as we’re turning into much less reliant on fossil gas era and extra on renewables,” Ling instructed RenewEconomy. “The providers from batteries are additionally altering away from the frequency and ancillary providers which batteries will proceed to supply, and this one will do the identical, but additionally offering extra of these firming providers by with the ability to agency up renewables and shift era to when it’s most wanted.”

Neoen says it has been engaged on the challenge since 2021, and has already given a discover to proceed to building firm UGL and to Tesla, which is able to provide 224 of its Tesla 2XL Megapacks. The primary stage can be sized barely bigger than the AEMO contract, and the power has planning approval for a complete of 1GW/4GWh of battery storage. The Collie battery would be the first 4-hour battery to be constructed by Neoen, and its sixth giant standalone battery total in Australia. It additionally owns a number of giant wind and photo voltaic initiatives.

“That is an thrilling time for Neoen as it’s our first main challenge in WA, and it additionally means we now have a giant battery in 5 of the six Australian states,” Louis de Sambucy, the top of Neoen Australia, mentioned in a press release. “With our rising workforce in Perth and a powerful pipeline of initiatives, we stay up for taking part in an more and more important function within the state’s fast decarbonization.”

“Renewable power infrastructure, akin to Neoen’s massive battery, is a key issue within the attraction of latest, progressive and sustainable industries that may cement Collie’s place as an vital industrial hub, offering worthwhile employment alternatives for generations to return,” mentioned Collie shire president Sarah Stanley.

The Takeaway

Within the absence of enough battery storage, the renewable power revolution in Western Australia would destabilize that state’s utility grid for a major time frame most days. Till now, offering ancillary providers like voltage and frequency stabilization has been on the coronary heart of the enterprise case for such giant battery storage initiatives, however now their time shifting functionality is taking over a extra outstanding function.

Neoen mentioned in a separate announcement that it’s rising its forecast working earnings in FY 2025 to greater than €700 million from the €600 million beforehand suggested only a month in the past. That is a rise of $160 million a yr, and whereas Neoen shouldn’t be saying that every one of that enhance in income is attributable to this new battery contract, RenewEconomy suggests it’s going to account for a big a part of the rise.

Australia has lengthy relied on coal for its electrical energy, with one former minister crowing that the nation has sufficient coal to energy the world for a thousand years. In fact, if that occurred, there could be no want for electrical energy in any respect as a result of only a few people could be left alive to eat it.

Featured picture courtesy of Synergy