Victorian Big Battery

Victorian Big Battery
Map
Country
  • Australia
Location
Coordinates38°02′S 144°17′E / 38.04°S 144.29°E / -38.04; 144.29
StatusOperational
Commission date
  • 8 December 2021
Power generation
Nameplate capacity
  • 300 MW
Storage capacity
  • 450 MW h
External links
Websitevictorianbigbattery.com.au
[edit on Wikidata]

The Victorian Big Battery is a grid-connected battery electricity storage facility adjacent to the Moorabool Terminal Station (substation) near Geelong in Victoria, Australia. The battery provides 450 MWh of storage and can discharge at 300 MW. It surpasses the 250 MWh Gateway Energy Storage in California, United States.[1] As of December 2021, the project is the largest lithium-ion battery in the Southern Hemisphere.[2]

The Victorian Big Battery is owned and operated by French renewable energy producer Neoen. Funding of $160 million was provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation,[3][4] the Australian government's green bank.

Construction started at the beginning of 2021. It commenced operations on 8 December 2021.[5] It uses Tesla Megapack storage units, an electric accumulator designed specifically for large-scale projects.

The battery aims to prevent blackouts during periods of network instability by providing grid support services, capturing and storing excess energy from sources such as wind farms, and feeding it into the grid during peak periods or outages to support Victoria's electricity supply.[6] The battery will store enough energy to power more than half a million Victorian homes for an hour, or the homes of a population equivalent of Geelong (the city where it is situated) for two hours.

  1. ^ "LS Power Energizes World's Biggest Battery, Just in Time for California's Heat Wave". www.greentechmedia.com. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  2. ^ "Neoen switches on Australia's biggest battery". yahoonews. Yahoo!. 8 December 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  3. ^ Hartmann, Imogen. "$160 million for Victorian Big Battery – Energy Spurt". Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  4. ^ Toscano, Nick (25 February 2021). "Federal green bank powers up Victoria's 'Big Battery' with $160m boost". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Neoen starts operating 300 MW Victorian Big Battery in Australia, one of the world's largest batteries" (PDF) (Press release). Neoen. 8 December 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  6. ^ Rollason, Bridget (5 November 2020). "Victoria's new Tesla battery in Moorabool to drive down power prices, State Government says". ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 13 December 2021.