The state of Victoria’s Gannawarra Energy Storage System (GESS), the largest integrated solar and battery storage facility in Australia, is now exporting and importing electricity to the grid and is ready to support the national energy system as demand rises over summer.
The project, developed by a consortium comprising Australian renewable energy and storage company, Edify Energy, Tesla and EnergyAustralia and co-financed by WIRSOL Energy, is currently completing commissioning and operating as a market participant in the National Electricity Market (NEM). GESS is capable of powering more than 16,000 homes through two hours of peak demand before having to be recharged.
GESS: first utility-scale storage retrofit
This is the first time a utility-scale battery system has been retrofitted to an existing solar project, the Gannawarra Solar Farm, providing a new commercial model for other renewable and storage facilities in Australia.
Australian renewable energy company Edify Energy oversaw the deployment and construction of the project, which utilises lithium ion battery technology by Tesla. Energy retailer EnergyAustralia will store and discharge energy from the facility until 2030. This is in addition to a long-term agreement to buy all the electricity generated from the co-located Gannawarra Solar Farm.
GESS was selected by the Victoria Government under its Energy Storage Initiative to integrate a 25MW / 50MWh Tesla Powerpack battery with the 60MW DC Gannawarra Solar Farm. ARENA on behalf of the Australian Government and the Victoria Government Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) supported GESS with AU$25 million in grant funding. (mfo)
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