03 October, 2016

W.A. plans Australia’s biggest solar+storage micro-grid in Onslow

Western Australia’s regional utility Horizon Power has launched a project to deliver what it claims will be Australia’s largest solar and storage-based microgrid once complete in early 2018.

The project, to be developed in the northwest town of Onslow, will bring together a new 5.25 MW gas-fired power plant, with a mix of distributed and utility-scale solar, to be coupled with battery storage.

“This will be Australia’s largest distributed energy microgrid, creating a new era of energy competition and efficiency for households and businesses,” said WA Energy Minister and Treasurer Mike Nahan, in a statement announcing the project.

The project will see Onslow, a town used as a launching base for the massive Wheatstone LNG project owned by Chevron, powered 50 per cent by renewable energy by early 2018.

But Nahan said it was likely that would grow to around 70 per cent renewable energy, which is about the mark being reached, or planned to reach, in smaller projects in King Island, Tasmania, and Coober Pedy in South Australia.

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