APA Group has taken a final investment decision to construct, own and operate the 72MW Sybella Creek Solar Farm and a 52MW/104MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Mount Isa, Queensland, backed by an AU$259 million (US$168 million) investment.
APA is an ASX-listed energy infrastructure company that owns and operates gas pipelines, power generation and other energy assets across Australia. The project is underpinned by an energy supply agreement with Ernest Henry Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of Evolution Mining, running until mid-2046.
Under the agreement, APA’s existing Diamantina Power Station, a gas-fired facility, will provide firming capacity alongside the new solar and battery storage assets, supporting greater efficiencies at Diamantina while diversifying APA’s customer base in Mount Isa.
Construction is expected to begin in late 2026, with completion targeted for mid-2028.
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The final investment decision was announced alongside APA’s FY26 results, in which the company reported underlying EBITDA up 8.3% to AU$2,183 million, exceeding the midpoint of its own guidance, and free cash flow up 3.2% to AU$1,118 million.
APA delivered AU$80 million in cost-out initiatives against a AU$50 million target, and increased distributions for the 22nd consecutive year, with securityholders to receive 58.0 cents per security for FY26.
Chief executive Adam Watson said Sybella Creek is expected to be value- and free cash flow-accretive, forming part of APA’s remote grid growth strategy within a broader organic growth pipeline that grew to approximately AU$3.5 billion over the year, up from AU$3.0 billion.
Watson said the pipeline would continue to be funded from APA’s existing balance sheet, alongside AU$546 million already invested in growth projects during FY26, including the Brigalow Peaking Power Plant, an expansion of the East Coast Gas Grid, and the Sturt Plateau Pipeline, APA’s first project in the Beetaloo Basin.
A region working around a stalled transmission link
Sybella Creek adds to a run of energy investment in the North West Minerals Province, a mineral-rich region historically reliant on islanded diesel and gas generation due to the absence of a National Electricity Market (NEM) connection.
That connection was meant to arrive via CopperString, a 1,100km transmission line from Townsville to Mount Isa, but cost estimates rose from AU$1.8 billion to more than AU$13.6 billion under the previous state government, prompting the current Crisafulli government to scale back the project and split it into an Eastern Link, targeted for 2032, and a Western Link that remains under assessment with no confirmed construction commitment.
In response, Queensland established the AU$200 million North West Energy Fund, managed by Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), to support localised energy solutions while the Western Link’s future remains unresolved.
QIC Infrastructure partner Arash Shojaie told ESN Premium that proposals need to stand on their own commercially, independent of the Western Link proceeding, with battery storage and other firming technologies expected to play a central role.
Sybella Creek is not funded through the North West Energy Fund, but sits within the same broader push to bring lower-cost, more reliable power to the region’s mining sector ahead of any NEM connection, pairing new renewable energy generation and storage with existing gas infrastructure to serve a single large industrial customer under a long-term supply agreement.
It also adds to a wider pattern of battery storage scaling across Queensland’s grid-connected network, where Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners’ Supernode BESS near Brisbane became the largest operational battery storage system in the NEM in July 2026, reaching a combined 520MW/1,858MWh across its first two stages.
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