The French are building a giant battery – but not back home

500 megawatts (MW) of solar power and 1000 MWh of battery capacity Neoen plans to build near the Australian capital – reported by Australian solar magazine. The project, simply called the “Big West Battery,” would be the largest battery storage unit in the continent, and the French wouldn’t overcomplicate it: they think it would work exactly the same as any other unit in New South Wales.

You will also need a new transmission line, but most of all: a lot of money. Neoen estimates the investment could cost $ 300-400 million. At a site just 100 kilometers west of Sydney (already decommissioned after more than 50 years of production) Wallerawang Coal Power Plant and operating since 1974 Lidsdale coal loader near construction) would start construction next year and the unit would be connected to the system by 2023. The company estimates that it will be able to introduce a number of new services to the electricity market due to the parameters of the plant.

The astral state would like to see 12 GW of new renewable energy generation capacity on the grid by 2030 – one of the keys to this (to offset weather-dependent green energy producers) could be the construction of Neoen’s huge battery packs. The company is not a starter in this field, they currently have the world’s largest lithium-ion battery in Hornsdale, and just last year signed a contract with the state of Victoria to build a 300 MW / 450 MWh plant on the outskirts of Geelong.