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Habitat Energy to optimise the largest solar & storage project of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere
This week we celebrated the completion of the Spencer Energy project, which combines a 6MWp solar farm with a 2MW/8MWh vanadium flow battery, the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
Port Pirie, South Australia now plays host to one of the world’s largest solar-powered vanadium flow batteries as part of an innovative $22m AUD project which uses an 8MWh Invinity Energy Systems battery combined with 6MWp of solar panels to unlock low-cost, low-emission energy for the Australian Grid, producing approximately 10GWh of dispatchable solar power each year.
Spencer Energy was developed by Yadlamalka Energy Pty Ltd, and is pioneering the development of grid scale, medium duration vanadium flow batteries to support the renewables transition. It has been supported by ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, with a grant of $5.7m AUD.
Habitat Energy has partnered with Yadlamalka Energy to optimise the hybrid site which is due to be operational imminently.
The project is ideally located to take advantage of price volatility in wholesale electricity markets driven by South Australia’s high percentage of renewable wind and solar assets, and will also provide Frequency Control Ancillary Services to help boost grid stability.
This is a really innovative project combining long-duration vanadium flow technology with solar to deliver renewable energy on-demand. We’re looking forward to optimising this complex, hybrid facility in the National Electricity Market.
”Greg Billman, Managing Director for Habitat Energy Australia
South Australia urgently needs more energy storage and we’re proud to be pioneering the use of vanadium flow technology to provide firm, dispatchable solar power for up to four hours at a time. It’s great to have Habitat Energy onboard with this project, who already have experience optimising the technology in the UK.”
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