Spanish solar PV developer X-Elio has submitted a 720MW solar-plus-storage project in Queensland, Australia, to the Federal government for approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The North Burnett Renewable Energy Hub, located 140km southwest of Gladstone, Queensland, will cover 2,211 hectares of land. The project features a 4-hour duration 720MW/2,880MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) co-located with the solar PV power plant.
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According to planning documents submitted to the Federal government, the proposed project’s location is well-suited for renewable energy development due to ample solar resources, legacy and upgraded connection/transmission infrastructure, and large areas of grazing land that could house solar PV or wind turbines.
The solar PV power plant would be ground-mounted and feature single-axis tracking solar arrays. Inverters and medium-voltage step-up transformers will be positioned throughout the arrays, and underground electrical conduits and cabling will connect the arrays to the inverters and transformer stations.
Should X-Elio secure the necessary approvals for the project, the developer expects construction to last around 36 months. The project is expected to have an operational life of 30 years. At the end of its life, the power plant will either be decommissioned or repowered with new solar equipment.
X-Elio’s presence within the Queensland solar PV market
X-Elio, owned by Canadian asset manager Brookfield, has several solar PV and energy storage projects in Queensland.
As reported by PV Tech in October, the developer secured Australian government approval to expand its 350MW Sixteen Mile solar-plus-storage project as long as it adheres to conditions to protect endangered local wildlife. The site features a 120MW/240MWh BESS.
Under the conditions laid out by the government, the development site must avoid regions that house habitats for endangered and vulnerable species, including Koalas, Grey Snakes, and Squatter Pigeons.
The southern section of the project site features eucalypt open woodland and an isolated patch of eucalypt woodland in the proposed solar PV power plant area. Both could house koalas and be used as a foraging area for vulnerable animals.
It is worth noting that the application for the North Burnett Renewable Energy Hub pointed out that although no Koalas were recorded within the project area, the closest sighting being recorded 7.3km to the east in 2022, scratch marks on smooth bark eucalypts were recorded in two locations during field surveys.
Our colleagues at Energy-Storage.news reported in October 2024 that the company’s 200MW Blue Grass Solar Farm near Chinchilla, a town in the Western Downs region of Queensland, which went into operation in 2022, is set to add a cumulative 148MW BESS to the project in two stages.
The first stage involves the deployment of a 60MW BESS, which is expected to reach mechanical completion by the third quarter of this year. The second stage will add an additional 88MW, with completion anticipated by the third quarter of 2026. The megawatt-hour energy storage capacity of the battery system has not been disclosed.
