Australia Set for Solar With 8 Hour BESS Backup

Australian Infrastucture investor Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, has announced plans to pioneer a global market first in advanced long duration energy storage solution developed in a technical collaboration with CATL, the world’s leading battery energy storage system (BESS) manufacturer.

The groundbreaking storage solution, believed to be the world’s first genuine 8-hour battery at more than double the current maximum 4 hour duration BESS, has been developed after extensive collaboration between CATL, Quinbrook and technical experts from Quinbrook affiliate Private Energy Partners. Quinbrook is planning a near term deployment of over 3 GW of long duration capacity at sites located across Australia to serve both existing partners and new commercial and industrial customers. The move follows a sharp drop in energy storage costs linked to Battery storage, which has sparked heightened activity in the market worldwide, ecpected to play out in a rapid increase in deployments from 2026 onwards in India as well.

 

Getting Closer to ‘24/7’ Renewables

The teaming of this storage solution with large scale power supply projects offers the opportunity for unprecedented power pricing outcomes by materially increasing the contribution that low-cost solar PV in particular can make across more hours of the day. The solution is an evolution of the solar+battery storage projects Quinbrook has built in the US and UK which use a 4 hour duration battery storage and set new milestones for the time shifting of solar power and cost competitive renewable power. Projects in high year round solar locations can already produce power for up to 14 hours a day. Doubling the storage duration improves cost competitiveness to a significant degree.

Solar PV is currently the cheapest form of power generation without subsidy in many locations in Australia because so many States and Territories are blessed with abundant sunshine all year round. This new and advanced long duration battery solution developed with CATL is specifically designed to cost effectively time shift more stored solar power than ever before to deliver industrial customers the ability to power a two 8-hour shift manufacturing operation entirely from solar power. Furthermore, this solution can defer significant grid augmentation costs and help existing baseload plants avoid higher costs and accelerated equipment fatigue caused by two shifting daily operations.  Solar PV paired with longer duration battery storage can now deliver one of the most competitively priced power options available today and will help to create new jobs and support value adding industries in Australia.

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 which is the ‘dam busting’ moment for this country’s decarbonisation. Teaming solar, wind and other power sources with long duration storage represents the future of sustainable and low carbon power systems, not just here but the world over. We saw this recently with news from the Middle East of the world’s first 24/7 baseload solar+storage project, so this is no longer the stuff of dreams. Most importantly, we have achieved a cost point and duration for this solution which is truly game changing compared to other technology options including many pumped hydro projects. We believe we are on the cusp of a solution enabling our Future Made in Australia ambitions which should encourage our existing energy intensive industry and builders of new manufacturing that Australia is the place to be.

David Scaysbrook
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Quinbrook

The first sites planned to host the new solution include Quinbrook’s Supernode site in Brisbane which already hosts Australia’s largest BESS campus. Quinbrook also has multiple sites that are strategically proximate to heavy industry in Gladstone as well as the planned Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct in Townsville. The solution is a timely development supporting the delivery of cost competitive renewables over an extended delivery profile which ideally serves the needs of power intensive industry such as Quinbrook’s previously announced Green Iron and Green Poly Projects in Queensland which are each examples of the Future Made in Australia opportunity now before us.

“We are immensely proud that CATL’s new product is named the EnerQB to reflect Quinbrook’s efforts in helping design a solution to increase the capacity of batteries to store surplus solar, wind and other excess power especially when prices are low, or the grid needs minimum load support from charging demand of the batteries. This solution offers a range of benefits not only to Quinbrook projects and customers, but also to enhance grid stability in locations where we choose to build them. Expanding Supernode with this 8-hour solution will also deliver critical support for the Queensland grid”, said Brian Restall, Managing Director and Regional Leader for Quinbrook in APAC.

Quinbrook also plans to couple its Quintrace platform with the EnerQB storage solution to enable the real time calculation of the carbon intensity of the grid charging options to better inform optimisation of emissions impact as well as revenue optimisation.

“Quintrace has been developed by our Quinbrook and Private Energy Partners teams to enable carbon emissions impact to be factored into operational decision making around the charging and discharging of the battery. The platform is very important for our customer partners who want to know the full scope of emissions when optimising the stored energy in the batteries,  added Brian Restall.

Australia’s Green Superpower Ambitions

Australia is in a unique position to claim its place as a clean energy superpower, as rising energy demand and a shifting geopolitical and global trade environment deepens Australia’s supply chain and ‘onshoring’ opportunity. Quinbrook co-founder and managing partner, David Scaysbrook, said the timing is right for Australia to deploy at scale its natural and globally unique endowment in renewables, critical minerals and a skilled workforce to forge new industries in the same way we have done ‘off the sheep’s back’, in iron ore, coal and LNG.

“Whoever controls critical minerals, controls the energy transition and it’s time, as a nation, to connect the dots between our abundant natural resources and now even lower cost renewables in order to create the industries that are urgently needed because of the times we are now living in. Australia is amazingly well placed to leverage its cost advantages and resource wealth to become a leading host nation for new export industries serving the needs of the global energy transition,” said Scaysbrook.

Quinbrook is working on a range of major new industrial developments that will help drive a decarbonised growth agenda with today’s announcement helping to underpin the economic feasibility of cost competitive power needed to support these new industries.