Australian renewable energy developer Edify Energy has submitted a 2-hour duration 180MWh solar-plus-storage site in New South Wales to Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The proposed Brewongle Solar Farm would have a generation capacity of 90MWac alongside a co-located grid-scale 90MW/180MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). It would connect to the grid via a 132kV transmission line from Wallerawang to Panorama and is owned by Transgrid.
Edify originally intended to build a 4-hour duration system (360MWh) for the Brewongle project, but this has since been scaled back. The BESS would either be located adjacent to the proposed substation being pursued as part of the development or dispersed in modular enclosures throughout the site. It would be a lithium-ion system.
The solar PV power plant is being proposed southeast of Bathurst, in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales. It would be located 200km west of the state capital, Sydney, beyond the Great Dividing Range.
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It would also be located just outside of the southern edge of the 7.7GW Central-West Orana renewable energy zone (REZ), which is expected to begin construction in mid-2025.
According to documents submitted as part of the EPBC Act application, the project site would be around 299 hectares. The site would look to ensure agricultural practices, such as sheep grazing, can continue in what is known as agrivoltaics, or ‘agriPV’. Agrivoltaics has been incorporated in several of Edify’s other Australian projects, notably the 80MW Peninsula Solar Farm and the 250MW Muskerry Solar Power Station in Victoria.
The proposed site would be connected to the National Electricity Market (NEM), which covers Australia’s southern and eastern coasts and Tasmania, and provide firming and system strength services.
The project’s operational lifespan would be between 30 and 50 years. Construction would take up to 18 months to complete and involve around 250 personnel working on the site. At the end of its lifespan, the project would either be decommissioned or be re-powered with new solar PV equipment.
Edify, Rio Tinto sign landmark offtake agreement for BESS
Earlier this year, Edify penned a landmark offtake agreement with Rio Tinto, which will see the British-Australian multinational mining company secure 2.1GWh of BESS capacity from the adjacent Smoky Creek and Guthrie’s Gap Solar Power Stations in Queensland.
The projects will hold 600MWac of solar PV and 600MW/2,400MWh of BESS. Edify Energy will build, own, and operate the projects, with construction due to begin in late 2025 and targeting completion in 2028.
At the time, Rio Tinto’s chief executive of Australia, Kellie Parker, said the deal marks the first time the company has integrated BESS technology to decarbonise its aluminium operations.
Rio Tinto confirmed that the 2,160MWh of BESS capacity it has secured will provide about 30% of the firming required to repower the Boyne smelter with renewable energy.
