Energy Vault has received a notice of award from Meadow Creek Solar Farm for the deployment of a 250MW/500MWh grid-connected battery energy storage system (BESS) in Victoria, Australia.
The 330MW solar farm, developed by Meadow Creek, is located three hours north of Melbourne, Australia, and will supply carbon-free electricity to approximately 110,000 homes in the region.
Under this agreement Energy Vault will immediately begin the advanced grid studies and modeling with technical advisor DNV, as required by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) for interconnected power systems in Australia’s eastern and south-eastern seaboard.
The Meadow Creek Solar Farm has completed extensive work on project feasibility, including grid capacity, and is currently progressing through detailed environmental and technical assessments to support the development application process.
The BESS, being co-located with solar PV, will provide the resiliency and flexibility of charge and discharge, essential to shoring up renewable energy supply across the network as Australia adopts the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan.
Energy Vault vice president of sales and business development, Asia & Pacific, Lucas Sadler said: “We are delighted to be selected for this important project in Australia.
“Over the past few months, the new Australian Federal Government has sent a strong mandate to the market to expedite the transition to renewable energy technologies supported by significant State Government updates to their clean energy and emissions reduction targets.
“The Meadow Creek Solar Farm, Hybrid Solar PV and BESS Developments goals are well met with the market release of Energy Vault’s AC and DC block bespoke energy storage solutions for the Australian market.
“Importantly, this award builds on the significant progress Energy Vault has made over the past year as we bring our transformative energy storage solutions to this important market.”
Development Manager at Meadow Creek Solar Farm Cameron Munro added: “The solutions approach Energy Vault conducted with our team has been pivotal in our decision to select the Energy Vault energy storage hardware and software platform.
“Energy Vault’s high energy density design, the option to work with both Central Storage Inverters or the new AC Block and the most advanced Energy Management Software, that enables multiple use cases, optimal economic dispatching and predictive maintenance, bring flexibility and further options when working with our financial and technical partners.”
The award from Meadow Creek follows earlier announcements of Gravity Energy Storage Systems (GESS) development on a multi-GWh basis in Australia with Korea Zinc’s subsidiary, Ark Energy, and a previously announced MOU with BHP.