Spain-based renewable energy firm Acciona Energía has submitted plans for a wind-plus-storage site featuring up to 800MWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The Tall Tree Wind Farm is being proposed south of Meredith in the Golden Plains Shire region of Victoria. It is located 94km west of the state capital, Melbourne, and is within the proposed Central Highlands Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
Spanning a 5,135-hectare site, the project would include up to 53 wind turbine generators alongside a co-located BESS of up to 800MWh. Little detail on the BESS has been revealed at the time of reporting, but it will be located in the centre of the site.
The project’s wind generator segment will have a generation capacity of 330MW and will connect to the National Electricity Market (NEM), which covers the east and south coasts of Australia and the island state of Tasmania.
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Construction of the Project is anticipated to commence in 2027 and last 24-36 months, with a targeted operational date of 2029. The project is expected to have an operational lifespan of 30 years and will either be decommissioned or have its operations extended.
The EPBC Act, administered by the federal government, aims to protect nationally threatened species and ecological communities. The approval must be received before a project can be developed.
In December 2024, the EPBC Act was scrutinised by the Australian trade association, the Clean Energy Investor Group, which revealed that decision-making periods have doubled from 2021 to 2023.
‘Sunshine State’ solar-plus-storage site submitted to the EPBC Act
In other news, Swedish solar developer OX2 has submitted plans for a 150MW solar-plus-storage project in Queensland.
The Sunshine State Solar Farm and BESS project, which is also Queensland’s nickname, features a 128MW/256MWh 2-hour duration BESS.
It is being proposed near the small coastal town of Rollingstone, approximately 50km north of Townsville in North Queensland. The total project site is 185.92 hectares.
Sunshine State Solar Farm will feature around 235 solar PV modules installed in regular arrays on a single-axis tracking system. It will also feature power conversion units, underground high AC voltage reticulation cabling, and aboveground and underground DC cabling.
Construction of the solar-plus-storage site is scheduled to begin in late 2027 or 2028 and is expected to last around 18 months. Operation is slated to start in early 2030.
The second part of this article first appeared on our sister site PV Tech.
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