This week’s announcement by Edify Energy that it had secured the finance for the country’s biggest solar and battery hybrid projects may be just the tip of the iceberg, with its bankers pledging enough funds to support three times as much capacity.
The Smoky Creek and Guthrie’s Gap solar and battery hybrids, as we reported earlier this week, are landmark projects for a number of reasons, and not just because the neighbouring projects are the biggest – rated at a combined 600 megawatts (MWac, or 720 MWp), and with 600 MW and 2,400 megawatt hours of battery storage.
That set-up means the output of the solar produced at the two solar farms can provide many hours of “firm power”, spread out over four hours at full capacity, or 12 hours at lower capacity, depending on the need of its major client, the giant aluminium smelter and alumina refineries in Gladstone.
As Edify Energy notes, the contribution of the two solar-battery hybrids is one of the most advanced examples of firmed solar powering heavy industry, debunking the mainstream media and political narrative that renewables cannot power energy-intensive industries.
Rio Tinto is committed to shutting down the ageing and polluting coal fired power generator in Gladstone, and replacing it with a mix of wind, solar, battery storage and likely a small amount of other “firm” power.
