Shell, Macquarie to build 200-megawatt battery in Australia

Sydney Morning Herald:

British energy major Shell has selected a suburb in south-eastern Melbourne as the location for its first direct investment in a big battery project anywhere in the world.

Shell, one of Australia’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers, is using its global scale in oil and gas to push into deeper into cleaner energy, and on Friday said it had struck a deal with Macquarie Asset Management to develop a two-hour big battery at the Rangebank business park in Cranbourne.

Once fully operational, the 200-megawatt, 400-megawatt-hour battery system will have the storage capacity to power the equivalent of 80,000 homes across Victoria for an hour during periods of peak demand.

Shell and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group on Friday said the battery would boost Victoria’s ability to host more renewable energy by increasing the state’s “firming capacity” – flexible energy supply that can be called on to top up the grid when needed – and providing crucial services to support the stability of the system. The project, which industry sources said would cost between $300 million and $400 million, has already reached financial close, and is expected to be completed by 2024.

[Nick Toscano]

More: Oil giant Shell makes world-first big battery investment in Melbourne