Spanish sustainable energy developer X-Elio is expanding an existing solar PV plant in Queensland, Australia, with the addition of battery storage.
The company’s 200MW Blue Grass Solar Farm near Chinchilla, a town in the Western Downs region of Queensland, went into operation in 2022, marking X-Elio’s entry into the Australian market.
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X-Elio’s solar project uses half-cut PV cells in bifacial modules. Fellow Spanish companies Gransolar and Ingeteam served as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor and inverter supplier respectively, while it received financing from lenders including Australia’s national Clean Energy Finance Council (CEFC) and banks ING and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC).
It was one of 50 large-scale renewable energy facilities deployed to contribute to support the Queensland Renewable Energy Target (QRET), which commits to 50% renewable energy by 2030 and 70% by 2032. The project is within the Southern Queensland Renewable Energy Zone (QREZ).
Two-stage BESS addition, grid-forming inverters
The developer, owned by Canadian asset manager Brookfield, said on Tuesday (22 October) that it will add a cumulative 148MW of battery energy storage system (BESS) technology to the project in two stages.
The first stage will see a 60MW BESS deployed and is expected to reach mechanical completion by the third quarter of next year. The second stage comprises the addition of the remaining 88MW and will be completed by Q3 2026. The megawatt-hour energy storage capacity of the battery storage was not given.
Ingeteam will again be supplying inverters as well as power conversion system (PCS) equipment, while the BESS will be supplied by Narada Power.
Blue Grass Solar Farm’s BESS will feature advanced inverters that enable grid-forming functions. These will enable it to perform essential grid services, including inertia and voltage support, which have traditionally been provided by centralised thermal power plants.
Grid-forming with advanced inverters is a big topic for the Australian battery storage market, with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) providing funding support for a wave of large-scale BESS projects that include the smart power electronics equipment, including new-build and retrofitting them to existing projects.
One developer based in Europe recently told Energy-Storage.news that while the battery storage supplier ecosystem has grown and diversified significantly in recent years, the number of providers that can offer grid-forming capabilities remains relatively few.
Brookfield steps up Australian market involvement with IPP acquisition
For X-Elio, it marks the company’s first hybrid solar-plus-storage plant that it will build in Australia, although it has others in its development pipeline. The Australian government recently granted approval to the developer’s 350MW Sixteen Mile solar project, also in the Western Downs of Queensland, set to include a 120MW/240MWh BESS, as reported by our colleagues at PV Tech.
Parent company Brookfield, meanwhile, is set to become a major player in the Australian BESS market with the acquisition of French renewable energy and storage developer and independent power producer (IPP) Neoen. Neoen is behind some of Australia’s best-known and biggest BESS projects to date, including the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery and Hornsdale Power Reserve.
Brookfield Renewable, the asset manager’s own development arm, also has partnerships in place with renewable energy developers across the country which could see further projects deployed.
