Category: Battery Storage

1 July 2024.

Community-based renewable energy solutions are key to building climate resilience, ZEN Energy CEO Anthony Garnaut said following confirmation today the company has received conditional approval of an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) Community Battery Grant.

ZEN’s community battery project is one of 370 that ARENA has chosen to fund in its first, $143 million-dollar, round of grants. ARENA received an unprecedented amount of applications received with a total grant request of $1.3 billion.

The Community Batteries for Household Solar program will improve access to distributed battery storage for households and community organisations across Australia.

Receiving a conditional ARENA Community Battery Grant will enable projects to prove the financial and emissions reduction benefits of integrating energy storage in and around the daily lives of people, Anthony said.

“ZEN’s community battery project will help to improve community energy-independence and contribute to the knowledge necessary to become more resilient to climate damage.

“We wish to see community batteries enable cheaper, cleaner energy storage for households and businesses, and provide valuable knowledge that can be shared across Australia to fast-track the implementation of these local batteries.”

Media enquiries: Paul Sheridan, 0410 516 656, paul.sheridan@zenenergy.com.au

18 May 2023

ZEN continues its PPA expansion, this time into New South Wales. ZEN Energy announced its first agreement with MYTILINEOS for offtake from its Wagga Wagga South solar farm. MYTILINEOS, a leading developer of utility-scale solar and energy storage projects, entered the Australian market in 2019 and has financed and built five solar farms across NSW and Queensland, with two more under construction.

“We are delighted to be working with MYTILINEOS on expanding our portfolio. ZEN is continuing to expand our PPA profile, now on a monthly basis,” said ZEN Energy’s Executive General Manager of Future Energy, Mark Sinclair. “We actively seek to work with innovative partners with a laser focus on delivering renewable projects as fast as we can.”

ZEN and MYTILINEOS have agreed to a long-term contract with ZEN taking 80% of the electricity and LGCs generated from the 18.7MW plant. The plant is now in commissioning phase and is expected to enter commercial operation in Q2 2023.

“Bringing on a series of mid-range assets enables us to support the regional aspirations of our customers. It means they can access offtakes where they are located, like regional distribution centres. We are continuing to focus on creating agreements with progressive companies like MYTILINEOS, taking on PPAs across regional Australia,” Mark added.

ABOUT MYTILINEOS

MYTILINEOS Energy & Metals, founded in Greece in 1990, is an industrial and energy multinational company, listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, with a consolidated turnover of €6.3 billion and EBITDA of €823 million and employs more than 5.442 direct and indirect employees in Greece and abroad. Through the Energy Sector, the company is strategically positioned at the forefront of the energy transition as an integrated “green” utility, while through the Metallurgy Sector the Company is establishing as a benchmark for competitive “green” metallurgy in the European landscape. Focused on sustainability, it has set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 30% by 2030 and achieve by 2050 net zero carbon footprint in all its operations in accordance with ESG criteria for Environment, Society and Governance.

For more information, please visit: www.mytilineos.gr | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn

9 March 2023

ZEN Energy announced today that it has acquired the Templers Battery Project from RES, as it continues to grow its renewable generation and customer supply portfolio in South Australia.The battery project is located approximately 60 kms north of Adelaide. It will be able to deliver up to 111MW of power into the grid and store 270MWh of energy, and is expected to cost more than $200 million and provide an estimated 181 jobs during construction.

As Australia’s first energy company to have a near-term science-based emissions reduction target in line with limiting global warming by 1.5°C, ZEN asserts that achieving this target will rely on an economy-wide transformation to renewable energy. This is consistent with the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2022 Electricity Statement of Opportunities update which called for an urgent need for storage developments.

The project has received approval to connect to the grid, with RES having run an efficient Generation Performance Standards (GPS) approval process in partnership with AEMO and ElectraNet. The project is expected to finalise financing arrangements in Q2 2023, with construction planned to commence shortly after. The Templers Battery Project is expected to take 15 months to construct, and to be fully energised and provide services to the National Energy Grid by the end of 2024.

“We are building our first utility-scale battery in South Australia, the state where it all began for ZEN,” said Anthony Garnaut, CEO of ZEN Energy. “The team at RES did a fantastic job in guiding the project through the last round of approvals that a project like this requires, and our team have been able to hit the ground running.

Anthony continued, ”Storage plays a critical role in allowing more renewable energy into the grid. When it is commissioned in late 2024, the Templers battery will have the most storage capacity of the batteries in South Australia, and it will quickly followed by bigger batteries supported by ZEN and others. At the rate we’re going, South Australia will be 100% well before 2030, enabling the revitalisation of core industries and for Australia to evolve into a renewable energy Superpower.”

“We are proud that the Templers project will be able to play a critical role in providing a secure and stable energy supply for the Australian electricity market into the future,” said Matt Rebbeck, CEO of RES in Australia. “RES is excited to have provided development services to ZEN on the final development items and continuing discussions to provide support with construction and asset management arrangements”.

ZEN plans to use the 111MW battery to support the delivery of energy to its existing South Australian-based customers, with the battery also expected to perform grid-stability services to the wider National Energy Grid.

ABOUT RES

RES is the world’s largest independent renewable energy company. RES entered the Australian market in 2004 and now employs over 140 people across the country with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane. RES offers development, construction, and asset management services for all utility-scale renewable energy technologies, including wind, solar, and storage. With a portfolio of 3GW of renewable assets in Australia, including some of Australia’s largest wind farms and solar parks. RES is known for identifying innovative solutions to reduce risk and cost. They have received industry recognition for their exceptional work, including the Clean Energy Council’s Innovation Award 2022 and the Asset Management Award 2022 at the Wind Investment Awards. With experience delivering over 23GW of renewable energy projects across the world, RES supports an operational asset portfolio exceeding 10GW worldwide and have secured over 1.5GW of corporate power purchase agreements. RES employs over 2,500 people globally and is active in 11 countries. Visit res-group.com for more information