Octopus Australia acquires Queensland’s largest battery proposal, the 1 GWh Blackstone battery

Renewables player Octopus Investments Australia, a subsidiary of UK-based Octopus Group, has purchased Queensland’s largest battery project, the 500 MW / 1 GWh Blackstone project just outside of Brisbane.

October 4, 2023 Bella Peacock

While the Blackstone battery project is almost double the size of Australia's current biggest battery, the 300 MW / 450 MWh Victorian Big Battery, there is a swath of incredibly large battery projects coming down Australia's pipeline.

Image: Firm Power

Octopus Investments Australia bought the Blackstone big battery project from its initial developer, Firm Power.

The 500 MW / 1 GWh Blackstone battery is proposed on a site in Swanbank just 40 kilometres from Brisbane, Queensland. The project is still very much in the development stages and only expected to reach final investment decision in the second half of 2025. To realise the project, Octopus still needs to organise connection agreements with network Powerlink, as well as secure offtake, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Octopus acquired the battery project using capital from its OASIS fund, a platform it set up in 2022 for institutional investors. The OASIS investment platform has raised $550 million (USD 346 million) in the last year, attracting backing from superannuation giants Hostplus and Rest Super, as well as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

Octopus Australia’s rapidly growing portfolio

Octopus Australia has undoubtedly had a busy year, acquiring the 175 MW solar farm + 400 MWh Ardandra project, which sits adjacent to Octopus’ existing 180 MW Dulacca Wind Farm – both of which are in Queensland. In May, Octopus also acquired a 400 MW Hay Plains wind project in southwestern New South Wales.

Earlier in the year, Octopus revealed its plans to fold two proposed hybrids projects into its OASIS and OREO investment platforms. Those are the Fulham project, set to include an 80 MW solar farm coupled with a 120 MWh battery in southeast Victoria; and Blind Creek, an agrisolar project with up to 350 MW (AC) of solar and nominally a 300 MW / 600 MWh battery, located in southeast New South Wales, near Canberra.

Desert Springs Octopus, a majority Indigenous-owned company backed by Octopus Australia and formed in 2022, also signed a series of agreements with First Nations groups from Darwin and Katherine in August. The intention there is for Octopus to work with the groups to develop a number of renewable projects in the Northern Territory, saying it will pursue a near-term investment of $1 billion into grid connected renewables along the Territory’s islanded grid, the Darwin-Katherine Electricity System.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.