French independent power producer (IPP) Neoen’s Australia-based energy storage assets helped boost the company’s 2024 storage revenue by 66% year-on-year.
Wind and solar revenue were both down 9% and 3% year-on-year, respectively, across the year. However, a significant surge in storage revenue helped mitigate the effects of this decline. Neoen posted total revenue of €533.1 million (US$575 million) in 2024, with storage contributing €95 million.
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Neoen’s triumph in storage revenues was primarily due to the contributions from stages one of Western Australia’s Collie Battery and the Western Downs Battery in southeast Queensland.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news last year, the first stage of the Collie battery energy storage system (BESS) was completed in October. This amounted to around 219MW/877MWh of BESS, with a second stage set to be completed shortly, bringing this to 500MW/2,000MWh.
When fully completed, the Collie battery will feature around 640 units supplied by China-headquartered battery manufacturer CATL. The company is providing its EnerC containerised lithium iron phosphate (LFP) BESS solution for the project.
Tesla is currently exploring a battery re-manufacturing facility near the Collie battery site.
Meanwhile, stage one of the Western Downs battery is a 270MW/540MWh system and was also completed in the second quarter of 2024. It is located adjacent to a 460MWp ground-mount solar PV power plant and has the support of Tesla and UGL.
The BESS was initially a 200MW/400MWh system before a 10-year “virtual battery” contract signed with Australian energy major AGL Energy increased its size to 270MW/540MWh.
Other drivers of the increased capacity included larger contributions from the Victorian Big Battery, which were driven by favourable market conditions and increased arbitrage revenue in August 2024. The Victorian Big Battery is a 350MW/450MWh and has been in operation since 2021.
Brookfield set to acquire Neoen in US$6.7 billion deal
This set of financial results is expected to be the last from Neoen, which has been trading as a public-listed company ahead of its acquisition by Canadian asset manager Brookfield.
The takeover has required the groups to navigate unexpected hurdles to complete the deal. One such hurdle was specific to Victoria, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) objecting to the takeover in October 2024.
The ACCC released a statement at the time stating that the acquisition of Neoen would increase Brookfield’s chances of prioritising its own generation and storage assets.
Brookfield already holds a controlling interest in AusNet, which owns and operates most of Victoria’s electricity transmission network and parts of the electricity distribution network.
Since then, Neoen agreed to sell its Victoria portfolio for AU$950 million to ASX-listed alternative asset manager HMC Capital. This was to comply with the ACCC’s request.
HMC Capital will secure Neoen’s 652MW operating portfolio, consisting of the 224MW Bulgana Green Power Hub, which includes a 20MW/34MWh BESS, the 128MW Numurkah Solar Farm, and the aforementioned Victorian Big Battery.
Neoen’s 2.8GW development, including over 1.5GW and 1.3GW of BESS, will also be sold to HMC Capital. One of these development projects includes the second stage of the Victorian Big Battery, called the Moorabool BESS, which intends to add an additional 300MW/450MWh system to the project.
