By the end of the year, a massive $1 billion solar farm and battery project in South Australia’s Riverland area will be completed and operational.
Lyon Group, a battery storage company, claims that the system would be the largest of its type in the world, with 3.4 million solar panels and 1.1 million batteries.
The business claims that construction will begin within months, regardless of the outcome of the SA government’s procurement for a big battery to store renewable energy.
Lyon Group partner David Green believes the system, which is being built on privately held scrubland near Morgan and is being funded by investors, would provide a “huge boost” to South Australia.
“The combination of solar and batteries will greatly increase the available capacity in the South Australian market,” he added.
Green stated that the project, as well as another comparable one planned in Roxby Downs, would have proceeded regardless of whether Port Augusta’s Northern power station had closed in 2016.
“We regard large-scale solar and integrated batteries as an inevitability as part of any decarbonization effort,” Greens added. “Any short-term decisions are little more than noise in the process.”
Premier Jay Weatherill praised the Lyon Group for the Riverland plan, which will allow for 330MW of generating and at least 100MW of storage. “Initiatives like these, renewable energy projects, are the future,” he says.
The premier stated that the business is one of many that have expressed interest in creating a 100MW battery as part of the South Australian government’s power plan, which was launched earlier this month and would be funded by a new $150 million renewable technology fund.
Weatherill stated that the administration will review the bidders in the coming weeks.
