Neoen Australia has launched construction of its third big battery in less than 90 days, helping accelerate Australia’s energy transition with 20 GW of utility-scale solar, wind, gas, batteries and pumped hydro now either commissioning or under construction.
David Carroll
From pv magazine Australia
The Australian arm of France-based developer Neoen has announced the start of construction of the 226 MW/866 MWh Goyder North battery energy storage project in South Australia.
It is expected the project will feature Tesla’s new Megablock technology, marking the world’s first deployment of the grid-scale battery architecture unveiled earlier this year.
The Megablock combines four of Tesla’s new Megapack 3 units into a single pre-engineered, plug-and-play block delivering 20 MWh capacity. According to Tesla, Megablock is optimized for rapid deployment and cost-efficiency, offering 23% faster installation and up to 40% lower construction costs compared to previous systems.
Engineering services company UGL has been selected by Neoen to construct the project. It will prepare the site and deliver the high-voltage infrastructure, including a 275 kV substation, control and switchroom facilities, earthworks, and footings, as well as provide testing and commissioning support.
The Goyder battery, that has planning approval for up to 900 MW of capacity and 3,600 MWh, forms part of Neoen’s Goyder Renewables Zone project, a vast hybrid solar, wind, and storage project being built near the town of Burra.
In addition to the Goyder battery, the hybrid project includes the now-operational 412 MW Goyder South wind farm, the future Goyder North wind farm that has planning consent for up to 1 GW of wind generation, and up to 600 MW of solar generation.
The battery is supported by a 10-year renewable energy baseload agreement to supply power to mining giant BHP’s Copper South Australia mines from July 2029.
The agreement will provide BHP with a 24/7 100 MW supply solution that combines output from the first 300 MW of the planned Goyder North wind farm, with storage from the Goyder battery.
Neoen, owned by Canada-based asset management company Brookfield, said the Goyder battery is its third energy storage project to move into construction in the past three months, following the go-ahead for the 305 MW/1,220 MWh third stage of the Western Downs battery in Queensland, and the 164 MW/905 MWh Muchea battery in Western Australia.
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