Australia

The Australian arm of Swedish renewables heavyweight OX2 will develop a new 25 MW solar farm in the New South Wales Riverina district after signing a long-term power purchase agreement with data centre firm AirTrunk and global tech giant Google.

Ark Energy’s 275 MW/2,200 MWh lithium-iron phosphate battery to be built in northern New South Wales has been announced as one of the successful projects in the third tender conducted under the state government’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap. The Richmond Valley Battery Energy Storage System will likely be the biggest eight-hour lithium battery in the world when it is completed.

Australia’s largest battery with grid-forming inverter capabilities is set to go ahead with energy major AGL announcing a final investment decision on a 500 MW, two-hour duration battery being developed in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

Five energy infrastructure projects representing 750 MW of renewable energy generation and 524 MW/4,192 MWh of long-duration storage have been successful to the New South Wales government’s latest tender round as it prepares for the exit of coal-fired power generation from the state’s electricity grid.

Smart metering services provider Intellihub is seeking to develop digital infrastructure that will enable the orchestration of more than 150,000 otherwise scattered consumer energy generation and storage devices, helping to create more than 510 MW of flexible energy demand.

Renewable energy retailer SmartestEnergy Australia and Enel Green Power Australia have signed a long-term offtake agreement for the 93 MW Girgarre Solar Farm being developed in central Victoria.

Electric vehicle charging in Australia and New Zealand has been given a boost with fund manager Pacific Equity Partners acquiring a majority stake in Australian electric vehicle charging solutions provider EVSE to the tune of $250 million (USD 167 million). The partnership also involves PEP-backed smart metering specialist Intellihub.

The Capacity Investment Scheme South Australia-Victoria tender is now open for bids. Renewable energy storage projects must be located in either of the states and have a minimum storage duration of two hours and a minimum size of 30 MW.

Solar developer Lightsource bp has declared that proceeds from the sale of five utility scale PV projects in Australia with a combined capacity of more than 1 GW will be used to fast track the development of a pipeline of projects across the wider Asia Pacific region.

Construction of Perth-based minerals company Australian Vanadium Limited’s first commercial vanadium battery electrolyte manufacturing plant has been successfully completed as part of the company’s broader value-adding vision.