Neoen, one of the world’s leading producers of renewable energy, has completed financial close on the Victorian Big Battery, a 300 MW / 450 MWh battery storage facility located near Geelong, in Victoria.
The project will be delivered in collaboration with Tesla and network partner AusNet Services. Owned and operated by Neoen, the Victorian Big Battery will be one of the largest batteries in the world, providing stability to Victoria’s transmission network.
Financing of the Victorian Big Battery was completed just three months after Neoen secured a 250 MW grid services contract with AEMO.
The project will be funded by a combination of equity provided by Neoen and $160 million senior debt facility provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), on behalf of the Australian Government.
Construction has already commenced, providing a well-timed economic boost for the Geelong region, with the project on track to be delivered by the end of this year.
The System Integrity Protection Scheme (SIPS) contract will run until 2032, unlocking up to 250 MW of additional peak capacity on the existing Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector (VNI) over the next decade.
Under the contract, the battery will provide an automatic response in the event of an unexpected network outage, providing AEMO with an additional resource to ensure grid stability.
Energy storage is a priority technology under the Australian Federal Government’s Technology Investment Roadmap as an enabler of cost effective and reliable low emission electricity.
Neoen’s chair and CEO, Xavier Barbaro, said it is the second battery the company is building in Australia.
“At 300 MW, it will be one of the largest batteries in the world, taking our total capacity in operation or under construction in Australia to over 1.8 GW, and bringing us one step closer to our global target of 5 GW by the end of 2021,” he said.