Said to be the Australia´s first of its kind, the A$42.5m ($28.6m) Lakeland project will integrate 10.8MW (AC) photovoltaic plant and a 1.4MW lithium-ion battery storage system in order to supply electricity even at night and on cloudy days.
The project is backed by A$17.4m ($11.7m) funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as well as a 15-year non-recourse loan from German bank Nord/LB.
ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said: “Figuring out how solar PV and battery storage technologies best work together at a large scale will be crucial for helping more renewables enter our grids.”
Expected to create up to 60 jobs during construction phase, the project is designed to generate over 22,600 MWh/year of electricity required to power more than 3000 homes.
Frischknecht added: “Solar farms with storage can be especially useful at the edges of our electricity grids. This project adds to ARENA’s portfolio of fringe-of-grid projects, which prove how renewables can enhance the reliability of energy supply in regional Australia and benefit local networks.”
During the first two years of operations, the project is scheduled to undergo trails to validate a concept known as islanding from the main electricity grid.
Lakeland, however, will run on solar and batteries for several hours during the planned tests.
Conergy managing director David McCallum said: “Utility-scale solar and storage, combined with effective management software, is the Holy Grail of the global renewable energy industry, and with this project we are well within reach of it.
“This is an exciting opportunity to combine the latest developments in solar technology with utility-scale battery storage to feed consistent, quality power into the existing electricity grid.”
The project, which will be connected to the Ergon Energy network, is planned to be completed by April 2017.
Image: Illustration of the planned grid-connected solar and storage project in Australia. Photo: courtesy of Lakeland Solar & Storage Pty Limited – A Conergy Group Company.
