Enel Green Power Australia (EGPA), a joint venture company co-owned by Enel Green Power and Inpex Corporation, has confirmed that its AU$190 million 98MW solar-plus-storage project in New South Wales, Australia, will commence construction in Q3 2024.
The Quorn Park Hybrid Project, which will feature a 20MW/40MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), will be located approximately 10km northwest of Parkes, to the West of Sydney.
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EGPA acquired the project in late 2022 and plans to start full operations in the first half of 2026.
The project will be one of the first hybrid solar and battery projects connected to the National Electricity Market (NEM). Instead of having two connection points nearby, it will share a single connection point to the electricity grid under the Generator Performance Standards (GPS).
As confirmed by EGPA, the project will be jointly financed using equity provided by EGPA’s shareholders and debt facilities from a group of two lenders, Westpac and Bank of China.
Werther Esposito, EGPA CEO, teased that the investment decisions are set to be the “first of many that will be made over the coming years”, with the firm set to accelerate the development of its wind, solar, storage and hybrid projects across Australia.
EGPA currently operates three renewable energy plants with 310MW of installed solar capacity. Earlier this year, the organisation confirmed plans to buy a 1GW solar and wind project from minerals company QEM.
QEM announced that the Julia Creek Renewables Project will be located next to QEM’s main Julia Creek Vanadium and Oil Shale project in northwest Queensland. According to the project sale agreement, Enel Green Power Australia will purchase solar and wind monitoring equipment, over 18 months’ worth of data and intellectual property related to engineering, environmental, geotechnical, floodplain, and other project studies.
