A first of its kind eight-hour battery, with special permission to charge in half the time, has been formally opened in the south-west of NSW, one of the first of nearly 100 renewable and storage projects benefitting from state and federal underwriting schemes.
The 50 megawatt (MW) and 400 megawatt hour (MWh) Limondale battery was the first project to win a long duration tender, an underwriting mechanism that had been expected to be dominated by pumped hydro.
But it won on lower costs and the success of this and other eight-hour batteries has helped change much of the thinking about storage in Australia’s main grids, relegating pumped hydro other technologies that are being hit hard by higher civil construction costs to “deep” and “seasonal” storage.
The Limondale battery – near Balranald and next to the 314 MW solar farm of the same name – has been delivered by German energy giant RWE, using 144 Tesla Megapacks. It has already been commissioned, as we reported here.
“It’s exciting to cut the ribbon on this Australian-first battery, which will get more renewable energy into the grid, placing downward pressure on bills,” said NSW minister for Energy and Climate Change, Penny Sharpe.
