A large-scale battery in Greenbank that can power up to 66,000 homes has begun commercial operations.
The lithium battery is the first of its kind in south-east Queensland, built over the last 1.5 years, and has been hailed as the future of renewable energy.
The battery charges during the day, during low power demand periods, and releases the ‘excess’ solar or wind energy in periods of high demand, often in the evenings when no energy is generated from the sun.
According to CS Energy, the company responsible for Greenbank’s battery, Queensland typically generates a surplus of solar and wind energy at around midday. In the evenings, demand for energy soars, particularly in summer months.
Greenbank’s battery, along Pub Lane, can power up to 66,000 homes for two hours during this evening peak before needing to recharge.
It has a discharge or release capacity of 200 megawatts and a storage capacity of 400 megawatt hours.
CS Energy CEO Brian Gillespie said the company had worked with Tesla, Consolidated Power Projects and Powerlink Queensland to deliver the battery in Greenbank.
“CS Energy’s Greenbank Battery has been regularly charging and discharging to support market requirements since beginning commercial operations last month,” Mr Gillespie said.
“CS Energy also undertook a detailed operational readiness program, which included employee training, critical risk assessments, and safety and design reviews.
“The battery has gone through a rigorous testing and commissioning process, which was similar to the approach used for the Chinchilla Battery.”
A battery in Chinchilla, Queensland, began operations in 2024 and served as a model for the Greenbank battery.
Grid-scale batteries such as these can respond to energy gaps in the power grid in milliseconds, and help to sustain a secure and reliable electricity supply.
CS Energy said batteries were expected to “play an important role in responding to the trend of higher daily and seasonal peaks in electricity demand.”
Mr Gillespie thanked the Greenbank community for their feedback and cooperation during the battery’s consultation and building period.
“Thank you to local residents who attended community updates held by our team during the construction phase. I would like to reaffirm our commitment to being a good neighbour now that we are in the operations phase,” he said.
Not all residents were supportive of the project, with one group in particular concerned about potential safety hazards.
With hundreds of these batteries scattered across the globe, there have been series of large-scale fires, including one in Queensland in 2023, that burned for days.
CS Energy said the fires were “extremely rare” and could be contained.
Are you serious, who wrote this story, good grief, You need to do some more research into this, Firstly, what was the costing for this monstrosity, secondly, your headline Mega Battery to Power 66,000 homes is a complete joke, I would hardly say 2 hours before they need to recharge is short of a joke, how do they expect to charge these batteries because I can see no solar farm close by to recharge said batteries and who is the so called lucky people who are going to get this power and at what cost!!!!!, and who paid for this 2nd rate advertisment. Sadly real journalism is Lacking in this story it’s just Government/ Council propaganda