Australia’s largest integrated battery and solar farm has opened in Victoria.
The Gannawarra Solar Farm is a 60 MW DC single-axis tracking project located west of Kerang in north-west Victoria. It is integrated with the Gannawarra Energy Storage System – a 25 MW/50 MWh Tesla Powerpack battery. The battery is big enough to power 16,000 households for two hours during peak demand.
In Victoria, the Gannawarra battery is one of the two big batteries brought online ahead of last summer to help stabilize the grid. The second one is the Ballarat Battery Energy Storage System, supplied by Fluence and owned by AusNet. The Victorian government invested AUD25 million (US$17.25 million) into the two big batteries. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) also provided AUD25 million (US$17.25 million) to co-fund the projects, with close to AUD20 million (US$14 million) sourced from private equity.
The Gannawarra Tesla battery is owned by Edify Energy and Wirsol. It is operated by EnergyAustralia under a long-term off-take agreement.
