Siemens Gamesa to Build Australian Wind Farm with Storage Battery
The company's contract with the renewable energy company Neoen calls for Siemens Gamesa to build the entire complex and then maintain it for 25 years.
Siemens Gamesa announced April 10 it will build and then operate a pioneering 194 MW wind farm in Australia that will incorporate a battery energy storage system. The company has been awarded an EPC contract for the entire project, which will encompass a wind farm with 56 of the company's turbines and a 20 MW / 34 MWh lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery to be provided by Tesla.
The company's contract with the renewable energy company Neoen calls for Siemens Gamesa to build the entire complex on an engineering, procurement, and construction basis and then maintain it for 25 years. Located in the Australian town of Stawell, in the state of Victoria, the facility is called the Bulgana Green Energy Hub. Construction will begin this month, and the facility is expected to be commissioned by August 2019.
It is the largest single-stage project in Australia for Neoen, which reported the total project cost is about A$350 million.
The complex already has secured two power purchase agreements, one with the government of the state of Victoria for the next 15 years and the other with the Australian agribusiness Nectar Farms, which will use LED light technology to grow tomatoes in greenhouses, for the next 10 years. Nectar Farms also will receive the power stored in the batteries during low wind periods.