German energy giant RWE says it received official sign-off to operate Australia’s first eight-hour battery energy storage system at full capacity.
The full commissioning of the 50 megawatt (MW, 400 megawatt-hour (MWh) Limondale battery next to the solar farm of the same name in the south-west of NSW represents a significant milestone for the Australia grid.
The project defied predictions that batteries would be limited to shorter storage periods, and was the flag bearer for the technology when it was announced as the sole winner of the first tender for long duration storage in Australia.
That sector had been expected to be dominated by pumped hydro and other technologies. But the costs of pumped hydro have soared – largely due to civil construction costs – while battery storage costs have plunged in recent years.
Another 10 eight-hour battery projects have won contracts under the state’s long duration storage tenders since then, with the scale increasing almost ten-fold and the storage duration has also grown even longer.
