Stanwell turns sod on 300-MW battery project at Queensland coal site

Aussie energy group Stanwell Corp has kicked off the construction of what will be Queensland’s largest energy storage facility, a 300-MW/1,200-MWh battery deploying Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) technology.

The Stanwell Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) will transform the site of the company’s coal-fired power station near Rockhampton into a clean energy hub, Stanwell said on Thursday. The scheme will entail an investment of some AUD 747 million (USD 495m/EUR 449.6m), of which AUD 448.2 million will come from the Queensland government’s Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Job Fund.

The energy storage facility will be equipped with 324 lithium-ion Tesla Megapack 2XL units, which will be able to store electricity for up to four hours and feed it back to the grid during high demand periods. The lithium-ion batteries will be installed by state government-owned electricity company Yurika and are expected to be switched on in the middle of 2027.

Meanwhile, Stanwell announced it reached the halfway mark on its 300-MW/600-MWh Tarong battery project in Queensland, which is also being installed by Yurika with Tesla’s Megapack 2XL units. The facility will provide two hours of storage capacity once completed in mid-2025. Its construction was initiated last summer.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.663/EUR 0.602)

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