As it continues to step up its preparations for batteries to support its ambitions for renewable energy, the state Labor administration of Queensland has announced a quadrupling of the storage capacity for a large battery planned for the coal center of Stanwell. The Stanwell battery, which is planned to be constructed next to the current coal-fired power generators near Rockhampton, will now have a four-hour capacity instead of the previously disclosed two-hour capacity of 150 MW and 300 MWh, according to a government announcement made on Thursday.
This will make it the state’s largest committed battery project. The project will be constructed by Tesla utilizing its Megapack technology, and the extension will add $448.2 million to the overall cost of $747 million. The Stanwell battery is expected to be operational by the middle of 2027, with construction set to begin this month. The project is a component of a new clean energy hub that is being developed for the location, which will also include a pilot project utilizing cutting-edge iron flow battery technology and green hydrogen.
It is one of several large batteries that Queensland is building in an effort to increase the proportion of renewable energy sources in the nation’s still primarily coal-based system.
The state is home to many of the largest wind and solar projects in the nation, the most of which are still in the planning stages, but it presently only has a 27% share of renewable energy, well short of the legally mandated objective of 80% by 2035. The state-owned generators are developing several batteries, including the 300 MW, 600 MWh battery that Stanwell Corp is creating next to the Tarong coal-fired power plant.
In addition to developing the 200 MW, 400 MWh Greenbank batteries south of Brisbane and the 250 MW, 500 MWh Swanbank battery close to that significant fossil fuel generator, CS Energy recently finished the 100 MW, 200 MWh Chinchilla battery near to the Kogan coal-fired power station. Two batteries—at Wandoan and Bouldercombe (seen above)—are now in operation in the state; several more are in the process of being started, including Neoen’s Western Downs battery near the largest solar farm in the state and Akyasha Energy’s Brendale battery, which is located outside of Brisbane.
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