US-headquartered energy storage developer Pacific Green Technologies has received planning consent from the South Australian government to develop its first two grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) on the Limestone Coast, a region in South Australia.
The Limestone Coast Energy Park assets will comprise 500MW/1.5GWh of BESS, which will be developed and constructed in two phases over a 36-month period. The first phase is anticipated to be operational in the second half of 2026, and construction on the park will begin at the end of this year.
The organisation said the ‘Energy Park’ will be capable of storing almost 60% of South Australia’s residential solar output for up to four hours.
Previous coverage by Energy-Storage.news revealed that the site is “strategically located” in the Limestone Coast region, close to the border of neighbouring state Victoria. An existing 275kVA substation is available to connect directly to it, 10km outside of Mount Gambier.
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Pacific Green: targeting 8.5GWh pipeline in Australia
The Limestone Coast Energy Park marks the first set of assets of an 8.5GWh development pipeline that Pacific Green is rolling out across Australia, a market it first entered in October 2023.
Through a local subsidiary, it brokered agreements with undisclosed parties to secure land sites to develop large-scale BESS assets in Portland, a city in the Australian state of Victoria. The company claimed this would entail the development of 1GW/2.5GWh of Energy Parks.
Diversity in energy storage locations is key for South Australia
Tom Koutsantonis, minister for energy and mining for the government of South Australia, said that it was “encouraging to see more private sector investment in energy storage” and that greater diversity of storage locations will “strengthen South Australia’s security of supply and reliability”.
Indeed, several BESS projects have reached essential milestones in South Australia since the start of the year. For instance, ZEN Energy confirmed in March 2024 that it had raised financing from US infrastructure investor Stonepeak for a 111MW/290MWh BESS about 60km north of Adelaide, the state’s capital. The same project broke ground in early June after it cleared the grid connection approval process in “record time”, technology provider Sungrow said.
Commenting on the Limestone Coast Energy Park, Scott Poulter, chairman and Group CEO at Pacific Green, referenced the significant growth Australia’s renewable energy market is witnessing.
“Australia is witnessing one of the world’s fastest growth renewable energy markets, so battery energy storage must grow at the same pace to support the grid network’s expansion of renewable generation,” Poulter said.
