A Sydney-headquartered private investment firm and renewable energy and storage developer have lodged a development application to build a large-scale battery energy storage system in Newcastle, in the Hunter region of New South Wales in Australia.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the UK has given the green light to the country’s biggest ever battery storage project.

Planning law in the UK allowing energy storage projects over 50MW has officially changed, allowing much bigger projects to come online without going through the national planning process.

While the Federal government of Australia resists public and political pressure to commit to net zero targets, the states of Victoria and Queensland have made progress in advancing plans for a large-scale standalone battery project and a wind-plus-storage plant respectively.

Hyderabad-headquartered firm Greenko Energies has received state government approval for a huge renewable energy project involving 1GW of solar, 550MW of wind and 1.2GW of pumped energy storage in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

A ‘green energy hub’ including a huge 120MW wind farm and up to 100MW of battery energy storage in Queensland, Australia, by French developer Neoen has received planning approvals from local government.

North Kesteven District Council, a local authority in England’s Midlands, has approved a near 50MW solar farm alongside planning consent for a 50MWh battery for Pegasus Group, adjacent to an existing 18MW solar farm.