Joint media release: Big batteries boosted under Albanese Government’s Reliable Renewables Plan

The Hon Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy
The Hon Josh Wilson MP, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy

The Albanese Government’s Reliable Renewables Plan is gaining momentum, with a $100 million investment to deliver two regional big batteries boosting energy security and a solar farm that will power 160,000 Australian homes.

After a decade of denial, delay and dysfunction from the former Coalition Government, Australian households are paying the price for an energy system too reliant on aging and increasingly unreliable coal fired power stations and overexposed to unpredictable global fossil fuel price spikes.

The Albanese Government is getting on with the job and fixing the energy system right now, ensuring enough new affordable and reliable electricity is being brought online.

Today, we are announcing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s (CEFC) $100 million commitment to Neoen, a world leading renewable energy developer, to support 1.3 GW of renewable energy and battery storage, including three new projects across the country.

• Collie Battery Stage 2 to provide critical support for the Western Australian energy grid,
• Western Downs Battery Stage 1 in Queensland to support more renewable energy into the National Electricity Market (NEM), and the
• Culcairn Solar Farm in southwest New South Wales.

Neoen has already delivered Collie Battery Stage 1 which started operating ahead of schedule and less than 18 months after construction began. This battery provides 4 hours of storage – it is charged during the day and discharges energy across the evening peak.

Together, Collie Battery Stage 1 and Stage 2 will have the ability to charge and discharge 20 percent of the average demand in WA’s southwest grid.

Collie Battery Stage 2 will also create 150 construction jobs.

The Western Downs Battery Stage 1 near Chinchilla in Queensland will leverage leading-edge technology and connect into Australia’s national electricity grid to provide energy reliability and stability, being called on in peak evening demand.

The Culcairn Solar Farm will generate enough energy to power more than twice the number of homes in the Riverina region of NSW.

Currently under construction, it is creating over 400 construction jobs and will distribute $300,000 each year in community benefit-sharing. The project will be operational in 2026.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen:

“The Albanese Government is deploying Australia’s largest green bank to invest in reliable renewable energy right now, creating the clean, cheap and secure energy grid Australians deserve.

“This latest partnership with Neoen will see three regional communities benefit for jobs and local economic activity, while our electricity system stores our abundant solar and wind through the day, ready to be discharged at night.

“This is all in very stark contrast to Peter Dutton’s Coalition who say they will pause all renewable energy development, increase reliance on old and unreliable coal plants, and wait 20 years before charging taxpayers billions for the most expensive form of energy – nuclear.”

Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Josh Wilson:

“The expanded Collie Battery Energy Storage System will create 150 construction jobs and be able to supply 20 percent of evening peak demand in the Western Australian energy grid that supplies the state’s southwest, including Perth.

“In just two years, the Albanese Government has overseen a 25 percent increase in renewable energy generation, and we are delivering grid-scale batteries to firm-up the cheaper, cleaner energy that Australians expect.

“After almost a decade in government, the Coalition couldn’t settle an energy policy, oversaw a fall in dispatchable power capacity, and now the best they can offer is prolonged reliance on fossil fuels under the guise of a nuclear fantasy that for Western Australia promises a technology that doesn’t even exist.”

The CEFC is now backing more than 2.3GW in new battery capacity across nine projects Australia-wide and more than 6.2GW of clean energy generation.