Jinko Power Australia, the local branch of Chinese solar producer JinkoSolar, has submitted a 133.76MWc solar-plus-storage project in New South Wales to the federal government under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The Garoo solar-plus-storage site will be coupled with a co-located 360MW/1,440MWh 4-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS).
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It is being proposed on a 369-hectare site on the east side of the New England Highway, in the rural locality of Garoo, roughly 385km from the state capital, Sydney. The JinkoSolar subsidiary’s site proposal includes plans for an on-site substation and a 330kV switching station.
The existing land is predominantly used for agricultural grazing and irrigated cropping.
Several solar and energy storage facilities are located near the site, such as Total Eren’s 600MWh Middlebrook solar-plus-storage project and Venn Energy’s 1,200MWh Lambruk solar-plus-storage site.
The Garoo solar-plus-storage site would connect to the National Electricity Market (NEM), which spans Australia’s eastern and southern coasts as well as the island state of Tasmania.
The BESS will be located at the northern point of the site near Garoo Road. The solar PV power plants will be split into two, with Tamarang Creek serving as a natural division.
Subject to acquiring the necessary development consent, construction on the BESS would start sometime next year and take around 18 months, with operations commencing in 2028. Once operational, the power plant would have an operational lifespan of 30-years.
Last year, JinkoSolar submitted plans for an 800MWh solar-plus-storage site in Queensland to the EPBC Act. Called the Beebo Solar Farm and BESS, the site is being proposed in the south of the state, south-west of Inglewood.
The solar PV power plant will have a generation capacity of 600MW and will be accompanied by a co-located 400MW/800MWh 2-hour duration BESS.
The EPBC queue, administered by the federal government, aims to protect nationally threatened species and ecological communities under the Act. This must be accepted before being granted permission to develop a project.
This article first appeared on our sister site Energy-Storage.news.
