Australia’s Victoria government has fast-tracked the approval process for a 1.8GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) being pursued by developer Birdwood Energy.
The 400MW 4.5-hour duration system is set to be developed in Wodonga, in the state’s northeast, close to the border with New South Wales. It is around 324km northeast of Victoria’s capital, Melbourne.
The project will be located in the existing industrial estate on Baranduda Drive within the proposed Baranduda Energy Reserve development. It aims to store and release energy to complement household rooftop solar, help stabilise the electricity grid, and reduce power prices, benefiting local residents, businesses, and industry in northeast Victoria and southern New South Wales.
The government has confirmed that the project has been selected alongside the 40MW Brewster Wind Farm to be fast-tracked through the Development Facilitation Program. The initiative aims to speed up the development of critical infrastructure projects in Victoria.
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This means that a decision on the planning application is expected to take around four months.
Victoria’s Minister for Energy and Resources, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the rollout of renewable energy projects would be crucial for the state to achieve its decarbonisation targets.
“Renewable energy is the cheapest form of new build energy available – that’s why we’ve cut red tape, making sure it can be built sooner, helping bring down power prices and create great new jobs for locals,” D’Ambrosio added.
Several renewable energy projects have been permitted to enter the programme following its acceptance of renewable energy projects last year. One of these includes the 360MW Mortlake solar-plus-storage project being developed by US independent power producer (IPP) BrightNight. Alongside this, Energy-Storage.news reported in late August that ACEnergy saw its 350MW/700MWh Joel Joel project fast-tracked.
The state government said that before the introduction of a fast-tracked pathway, over one in five renewable energy project applications were stuck in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). Although most of these projects were eventually approved, the delays often extended the process by as much as two years.
Energy Vault to provide 200MWh BESS for government-owned project
In other news, in Victoria, energy storage developer and system integrator Energy Vault has been tapped by Victoria’s State Electricity Commission (SEC) to deliver a 100MW/200MWh government-owned BESS.
Energy Vault revealed last week that it will supply the system for the SEC Renewable Energy Park, a 100% publicly owned utility-scale renewable energy project in Victoria’s west, near Horsham, around 300km northwest of the state capital Melbourne.
It is hoped the SEC Renewable Energy Park will come online in 2027 and will primarily be used to supply 100% renewable electricity to Victorian government schools, hospitals and offices.
