Giant batteries are coming to Australia, bringing 24/7 renewables a ‘step closer’

A major renewable energy investor is planning to build some of the world’s most powerful batteries in Australia after developing a breakthrough technology it says can deliver electricity for twice as long as today’s largest grid-scale battery systems.

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a global investor in energy-transition assets and backer of tech mogul Mike Cannon Brookes’ 35ドル billion Sun Cable mega-project in the Northern Territory, has been working with Chinese battery giant CATL on pioneering a grid-scale battery with eight hours of storage capacity.

The new battery systems, said to be the first in the world designed to discharge for eight hours, marked a step up from most of the batteries on the market today, which typically discharged at full output for a maximum of four hours, Quinbrook said.

Installing a fleet of the giant batteries across Australia could prove "game-changing", the investment firm said, due to their potential to cut the cost and boost the availability of zero-emissions energy to help decarbonise heavy industry and power emerging green manufacturing processes of the future.

"This exciting advance from our collaboration with CATL brings us one step closer to the holy grail of 24/7 renewable power here in Australia," Quinbrook managing partner David Scaysbrook said.

Grid-scale batteries, with near-zero start-up time, are considered critical to the world’s transition away from burning fossil fuels because of their ability to soak up surplus renewable power in the daytime and use it to plug gaps and stabilise the grid once the sun sets or during other periods of low wind and sunlight.

Most batteries installed so far across the country exhaust their stored energy within one to two hours of full output and are mainly used to supply urgent discharges to maintain system frequency.

Scaysbrook said the battery technology created with CATL would deliver longer supplies of low-cost, emissions-free power, positioning it to compete with other long-duration storage technologies, such as pumped hydroelectric dams.

Quinbrook is planning an initial roll-out of 3 gigawatts of batteries, with 24 gigawatt-hours of storage, across various sites in Australia, targeting large commercial industrial customers who are seeking around-the-clock clean energy solutions. The roll-out is expected to cost 3ドル.5 billion.

The first battery would be built at Quinbrook’s Supernode data centre and battery storage site in Brisbane, it said, while subsequent projects are planned for Gladstone, Townsville and NSW. Rio Tinto, the second-largest Australian mining company, is looking for large-scale clean energy supplies to power its Boyne aluminium smelter and alumina facilities in Queensland’s Gladstone region.

The new battery projects could also enhance grid stability in the regions where the company chooses to build them. "Expanding Supernode with this eight-hour solution will ... deliver critical support for the Queensland grid," said Brian Restall, Quinbrook’s regional leader for Asia-Pacific.

Quinbrook’s global investment portfolio spans a range of renewable energy generation and storage technologies, including onshore wind, solar power, biomass and energy-management solutions. Quinbrook is partnering with Cannon-Brookes’s Grok Ventures to develop the Australian component of the 35ドル billion Sun Cable mega-project in the Northern Territory, which aims to build the world’s biggest solar and battery complex, and link it to Darwin and Singapore.

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