Neoen and Tesla to Expand World’s Largest Li-ion Battery System

Neoen has announced a 50 percent expansion of its Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia that will be supported by Tesla.

Neoen, one of the world’s leading and fastest-growing independent producers of exclusively renewable energy, has announced a 50 percent expansion of its Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia that will be supported by Tesla.

The 50 MW/64.5 MWh expansion will further showcase the complete benefits that grid-scale batteries can provide to the National Electricity Market (NEM) and Australian consumers. In its first year of operation, the battery has saved consumers more than 50 million AUD, and the expansion which will be completed in the first half of 2020, will see these savings continue to grow.

Alongside additional power system reliability and continued cost savings to consumers, the expansion will provide an Australian-first large-scale demonstration of the potential for battery storage to provide inertia to the network which is critical to grid stability and the future integration of renewable energy. This will ensure South Australia can continue to harvest its world-class wind and solar resources and support the transition to net 100 percent renewable energy generation in the 2030s, and further drive down electricity prices for all consumers.

Louis de Sambucy, managing director of Neoen Australia said, “I would like to thank the South Australian Government, ARENA and the CEFC in supporting the expansion of the Hornsdale battery. The support of the South Australian Government has been central to the project, alongside its vision of making the state an exporter of renewable energy.

The expansion of Hornsdale Power Reserve is demonstrating the critical and multiple roles that batteries will play in the grid of the future. I would also like to acknowledge the great support of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to bring forward the critical innovations and regulatory changes that the network requires, and of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for this first financing support for a battery project.”

The South Australian Government is playing an instrumental role in this project by committing 3 million AUD per year for 5 years in grant funding toward the expansion through its Grid-Scale Storage Fund, to secure the delivery of the inertia benefits highly needed by the grid.

The Hornsdale Power Reserve expansion is the first project to receive support from the fund; established in November last year to accelerate the deployment of new storage projects capable of addressing some of the key challenges that are having cost and security impacts on the South Australian power system. On behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed 8 million AUD in grant funding through its Advancing Renewables Program.

The project will also be the first battery project in Australia to benefit from debt financing support from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).