United Kingdom-headquartered solar and energy storage developer Elements Green announced it has received formal technical clearance for grid connection for the Eurimbula Solar Farm project being developed near the industrial city of Gladstone in central Queensland.
The estimated $2 billion (USD 1.28 million) Eurimbula project is to comprise a 560 MW (696 MWp) solar power plant backed by a 666 MW / 1,332 MWh battery energy storage system featuring grid-forming inverters. The development will also include a 33 / 275 kV substation.
Elements Green said it has now received the 5.3.4A Letter from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and Queensland transmission network operator Powerlink, providing technical clearance to connect the hybrid project to the national grid.
“The letter outlines the technical conditions for connection to the grid, a prerequisite for connection to the Powerlink network, final negotiations with offtake partners, EPC contractors and project investors,” the company said.
Toby Roberts, Country Director Australia at Elements Green, said the milestone marks the transition into the next phase of project execution.
“Securing the 5.3.4A letter brings us significantly closer to breaking ground this year,” he said. “We are now focused on completing the remaining approvals to enter the construction phase as planned.”
Elements Green said the Eurimbula project, located within the proposed Central Queensland Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), is its first solar and battery energy storage project in Australia the largest hybrid project in the country to achieve the AEMO approval.
Being developed across a 1,285-hectare site near the town of Bororen, about 50 kilometres south of Gladstone, the project design includes more than 1.2 million PV modules and approximately 180 inverters with grid-forming capabilities. Once operational, the facility will be capable of generating about 1,460 GWh of clean energy per year.
Elements Green said the project will also serve as an insight into the benefits of grid-forming inverters with the company working with stakeholders to understand the potential of the technology to address many of the challenges facing the future power system with little or no synchronous generation, such as coal-fired generation.
“The Eurimbula project is part of a grant-funded research program supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA),” it said. “In partnership with the University of Queensland, EPEC, SMA, AEMO and Powerlink, the project will demonstrate through hardware-in-the-loop testing how hybrid facilities can support and strengthen future power system security.”
Eurimbula is Elements Green’s most advanced development in the Australian market where the company said it has approximately 3.75 GW of renewables projects in the pipeline. These form part of a global development pipeline of more than 14 GW, including the Staythorpe solar and storage project in the UK.
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