Utility Scale Storage

Researchers from Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have unveiled a new solar dish plant design, while Plug Power has delivered its first electrolyser system to Europe.

Australia’s energy minister has revealed the upcoming Federal Budget will include support for a new revenue underwriting mechanism that is expected to unlock billions of dollars of renewable energy investment and “gigawatts of power” to support the ongoing decarbonisation of the grid.

The beleaguered Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project has been hit with fresh construction delays and added cost blowouts with concerns the multi-billion-dollar project may now not reach full commercial operation until late 2029.

Independent power producer Alinta Energy expects work on a 45 MW solar farm and 35 MW/35 MWh battery energy storage system planned for Western Australia’s Pilbara region will commence inside two months following the appointment of contractors to construct and connect the hybrid project.

The successful projects from the first tender conducted under the New South Wales government’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap have been announced with two large solar farms, a wind farm and an eight-hour battery energy storage system to be built as the state looks to manage the exit of coal-fired power generation from the grid.

Today marks a historic moment in Australia’s energy transition with AGL Energy completing the shutdown of its coal-fired Liddell power station in New South Wales with the last operating turbine having been switched off for the final time.

The Victorian government has launched a market search for what is to be the first large-scale renewable energy project to be developed under the resurrected State Electricity Commission that will invest an initial $1 billion towards delivering 4.5 GW of renewable energy capacity.

The New South Wales government has tapped the ACE Energy consortium as the “first ranked proponent” to fill the network operator role for Australia’s first coordinated renewable energy zone that will host at least 3 GW of solar, wind and storage capacity.

Construction of a 100 MW/200 MWh battery energy storage system being built near Chinchilla in Queensland’s Western Downs region is now being finalised with CS Energy confirming that the last of the 80 Tesla Megapack units for the project have been delivered and installed.

Origin Energy will “within weeks” begin building the first stage of a planned 700 MW/2,800 MWh grid-connected battery energy storage system being developed at the site of Australia’s largest coal-fired power plant that is set to be shut down in less than 28 months.