Another major battery storage project has lined up for approvals at the emerging Swanbank energy hub in Queensland, the site of a former coal fired power station that now features a gas generator and plans to add storage and other industrial activities.
Last week, the 180-megawatt (MW) two-hour (360 MWh) Noblevale battery project, being developer by Melbourne-based developer Zebre, was waved through the federal government’s environmental assessment queue.
Zebre says that the project “will play an important role in replacing ageing existing energy infrastructure and providing essential storage capacity for Ipswich and south-east Queensland.”
It was waved through as not a “controlled action”, due in large part to its planned development on the site of the old Swanbank coal mine. In its referral to the EPBC queue, Zebre explained that the location had been selected “to avoid environmental values including the Koala Habitat Area”.
The Swanbank Industrial Area is already home to at least one big battery, the 250 MW/500 MWh Swanbank BESS which was commissioned earlier this year, but another even bigger battery, a 500 MW, 2000 MWh proposal, has also joined the EPBC queue.
