Greenspot wins permit for 500-MW/1,000-MWh BESS at former coal plant site in NSW

New South Wales-based Greenspot said on Friday it has secured planning approval for a 500-MW/1,000-MWh battery energy storage project at the site of a shuttered coal-fired complex in its home state.

The project’s development application, filed in December last year, has been given the green light by the Aussie state’s Department of Planning and Environment.

Under the plan, Greenspot is proposing to install the so-called Wallerawang 9 battery energy storage system (BESS)within the retired Wallerawang Power Station near Lithgow, which was shut retired in 2014 and had its smokestacks and boilers demolished in a controlled explosion at end-2021. The developer intends to invest some AUD 400 million (USD 278.3m/EUR 273.1m) to build a facility that will provide storage firming and other energy services that will help improve the electricity grid’s stability.

The battery will be located just outside the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone and will connect to an existing TransGrid substation previously used by the coal-fired station. Greenspote previously said it will aim to bring the facility into service by the summer of 2023/2024.

The BESS will be installed as part of a wider project calling for repurposing the Wallerawang power station and surrounding lands.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.696/EUR 0.683)

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