Neoen Australia has started construction of its third major battery in less than 90 days, accelerating Australia’s energy transition with 20 GW of solar, wind, gas, batteries and hydropower plants now in operation or under construction.
The Australian arm of France-based developer Neoen has announced the start of construction on the 226 MW/866 MWh Goyder North battery energy storage project in South Australia.
The project is expected to feature Tesla’s new ones Mega block technology, marking the world’s first implementation of the grid-scale battery architecture unveiled earlier this year.
The Megablock combines four of Tesla’s new Megapack 3 units into a single pre-engineered, plug-and-play block delivering 20 MWh of capacity. According to Tesla, Megablock is optimized for rapid deployment and cost-efficiency, offering 23% faster installation and up to 40% lower construction costs compared to previous systems.
Engineering firm UGL has been selected by Neoen to build the project. It will prepare the site and provide high-voltage infrastructure, including a 275 kV substation, control and switchgear facilities, earthworks and foundations, and provide testing and commissioning support.
The Goyder battery, which has planning approval for capacities up to 900 MW and 3,600 MWh, is part of Neoen’s Goyder renewable energy zone project, a massive hybrid solar, wind and storage project being built near the town of Burra.
In addition to the Goyder battery, the hybrid project includes the now operational 412 MW Goyder South wind farm, the future Goyder North wind farm which has planning permission for up to 1 GW of wind energy and up to 600 MW of solar energy.
The battery is backed by a 10-year baseload renewable energy agreement to supply power to mining giant BHP’s Copper South Australia mines from July 2029.
The agreement will provide BHP with a 100MW 24/7 supply solution that combines the output of the first 300MW of the planned Goyder North wind farm with storage from the Goyder battery.
Neoen, property Canada-based asset management company Brookfield said the Goyder battery is the third energy storage project to come under construction in the past three months, following the green light for the 305 MW/1,220 MWh third phase. Western Downs Battery in Queensland, and the 164 MW/905 MWh Muchea battery in Western Australia.
David Dixon, senior analyst at independent research firm Rystad Energy, said progress on the Goyder battery has increased the total capacity of large batteries in Australia’s main grid in operation or under construction to 10.6 GW.
“The NEM now has 20 GW of utility-scale PV, wind, gas, batteries and hydropower plants in operation or under construction,” he said. “Incredibly more than half of this is related to utility battery capacity.”
Dixon said most of this 20 GW capacity is expected to be online within the next 24 months.
“It is also worth noting that more than 10 GW of capacity has been generated on the NEM in one year for the first time,” he said, adding that batteries and utilities and behind-the-meter solar were the two standout technologies with more than 9 GW of energy by 2025.
The start of construction on the Goyder Battery brings Neoen’s total battery storage capacity in Australia to more than 2.2 GW/7.2 GWh of capacity currently in use or under construction, making the country the largest owner and operator of large batteries.
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