Tailem Bend will house SA’s first grid-scale solar power and battery system
The combined energy system will supply clean energy to around 35,000 homes annually, while employing up to 200 staff during construction.
South Australia’s first combined solar and battery energy storage system is about to be built at Tailem Bend.
Vena Energy’s Tailem Bend Two project will be a hybrid system, aggregating solar generation and battery storage to create the Tailem Bend Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
The company said it would employ up to 200 people during construction, and was eager to hire locals.
“Vena Energy’s mission is to accelerate the energy transition across the Asia-Pacific region, and the Tailem Bend BESS is an example of this shift,” Owen Sala, the head of Vena Energy Australia, said in a statement.
“It will provide both generation and storage for renewable energy to the South Australian network as part of its plans to achieve net-zero by 2030.”
The completed system would have a capacity of 128.5 megawatts: 87MW for the solar farm and 41.5MW for the battery.
It would provide enough clean energy to power approximately 35,000 homes annually.
By doing so, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 207,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the company said, equivalent to planting more than 3.4 million trees.
ZEN Energy will purchase the renewable energy generated by the solar project for its South Australian customers.
“This is the critical decade for climate action,” Zen Energy CEO Anthony Garnaut said.
“There has been a need to shift to green energy in recent years.
“In Australia we have around five gigawatts of renewable energy projects in the pipeline, accommodating the demand for clean, reliable energy sources.”
The Tailem Bend battery will provide energy storage and ancillary services to improve the reliability of the South Australian power grid.
The first stage of the Tailem Bend solar farm, worth $200 million, opened in 2019.
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