Iberdrola reveals 1,500 GWh capacity battery storage projects in Australia

Spanish company Iberdrola has announced two new battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Australia.

These include the 250 MW / 500 MWh Gin Gin project near Bundaberg in Queensland and the 270 MW / 1,080 MWh Kingswood project in New South Wales. Together, the projects will offer more than 1,500 GWh capacity.

The two projects will cause a huge upsurge in the company's capacity in Australia. At the moment, the energy giant owns and operates a 25 MW / 52 MWh capacity battery co-located with its Lake Bonney wind farm in South Australia.

It also contracts the 50 MW / 75 MWh Wallgrove grid battery in Western Sydney, and is developing a 72 MW / 144 MWh project --- the Smithfield battery --- in Western Sydney.

Iberdrola hopes to start building the Gin Gin battery in 2025 --- subject to regulatory approvals --- and make it operational before 2026 end. The Kingswood BESS will proceed on similar timelines: Iberdrola hopes to begin construction in 2025 and start operations in 2026. Kingswood was originally proposed as a 1,000 MWh, two-hour battery, but resized to have four hours of storage capacity instead.

Ross Rolfe, Chairman and CEO of Iberdrola Australia, said in a statement announcing the projects: "Iberdrola Australia is developing a portfolio of batteries in the National Electricity Market… these proposed batteries will help manage the intermittency of our low-cost wind and solar generators."