A Victorian solar farm is getting a big battery. The state-owned SEC has finalised a 10-year offtake agreement for Glenrowan Solar Farm in the state's north-east and a new 102 MW battery with up to four hours of storage planned for the site. The deal replaces SEC's existing offtake for the solar farm alone.
The details
- Owner: Pacific Partnerships, a Cimic Group company. General manager of energy David Lovell called it the company's «first large scale BESS hybridisation».
- The solar farm: it has been generating since May 2024 and was the first project selected under the state's VRET 2 auction to start operating. SEC describes it as 102 MW; RenewEconomy gives 130 MW.
- Next step: the battery is expected to go to construction after financial close, which RenewEconomy says is expected sometime next year.
Why SEC wants storage
«Energy storage is critical to ensuring our customers have access to affordable, reliable electricity when they need it», SEC CEO Chris Miller said. SEC supplies renewable electricity to more than 4,400 sites, about 5% of Victoria's demand.
RenewEconomy notes SEC's first big storage investment was the 600 MW Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub, built with Tesla Megapacks, and that in September it bought a minority stake in the proposed 400 MW Baranduda battery near Wodonga.