Renewables developer Pacific Green announced it has received a planning permit from the Victorian government to build a 1 GW / 2.5 GWh battery energy storage system near Portland in the state’s southwest.
Pacific Green said the $1.3 billion (USD 860 million) Portland Energy Park, that will include four 250 MW units with between two and four hours of storage each, will be developed in phases over the next 36 months with the facility expected to be operating in 2028.
Joel Alexander, Managing Director of Pacific Green’s Australian operations, said once built, the Portland Energy Park will be one of the largest batteries in the nation.
“Once operational, Portland will stand as Australia’s largest grid-scale battery, driving Victoria’s energy transition forward,” he said.
The developer said the battery energy storage system will be constructed within Portland’s industrial zone, home to Alcoa’s aluminium smelter, Victoria’s biggest energy consumer, and will significantly boost energy storage capacity and enhance Victoria’s energy stability.
Pacific Green, which developed the 250 MW / 1,000 MWh first stage of the Limestone Coast North battery project in South Australia before selling it to Intera Renewables, says the Portland project represents the next step in its ambition to develop a pipeline of more than 7 GWh of battery energy parks across the National Electricity Market.
“Its scale underlines our ambition to become a leading developer in the market and to accelerate the nation’s transition to renewables through a multi-gigawatt platform,” Pacific Green Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer Scott Poulter said.
Approval of the Portland Energy Park project was fast-tracked by the Victorian government through its Development Facilitation Program (DFP), which was expanded in April last year to include renewables, making them eligible for an accelerated pathway, and removing the planning panel process and third-party appeals.
Prior to this, more than one in five renewable energy project applications ended up getting bogged down in the state’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The state government said while the majority of projects were eventually approved eventually, they often faced delays of up to two years.
Victoria Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny since opening up the DFP process to renewables, the government has fast-tracked 20 energy generation and storage projects.
“Our fast-tracked pathway has unlocked more than $6 billion worth of investment into renewable energy projects, helping provide cheaper and cleaner energy to hundreds of thousands of Victorian households,” she said.
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.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.