Renewables developer Neoen is planning a 1.8GW wind-solar hybrid plant allied with 900MW of battery storage in South Australia, the state’s government said.
The scale of storage envisaged at the project would dwarf the Tesla battery in operation at Paris-based Neoen’s Hornsdale wind farm, also in South Australia.
The 100MW Hornsdale storage deployment was billed as the biggest lithium-ion battery in the world when it was installed by Tesla in 2017 in response to a major blackout that hit South Australia the previous year.
With up to 1.2GW of wind and 600MW of PV, Goyden South is one of a string of huge clean-energy developments planned along a new interconnector linking South Australia and New South Wales, said a statement from state officials.
The final two stages of the project – for which no timescale was given – is dependent on the SA-NSW interconnector proceeding, added the statement.
“South Australia currently only has interconnection with Victoria which puts us at the end of the line and vulnerable to the type [of] system risks that saw the entire state blacked out in 2016,” it said.
“This new additional interconnector will bring South Australia into the loop with the rest of the national energy market, bringing cheaper power, greater reliability and increased export opportunities for our renewable energy.”
