Singapore-based power company Nexif Energy has reached financial close for the first stage of construction of a wind farm with utility scale battery storage in South Australia.
Nexif said the 126MW first stage of the Lincoln Gap Wind Farm, near Port Augusta, includes building and operating 36 wind turbines.
On completion, the full project will have a 10MW battery storage system, “with potential expansion capability to utilise battery technology advancements”, Nexif said.
The total number of wind turbines will be 59, producing 212MW, which Nexif said is enough to power around 155,000 homes.
Lincoln Gap is expected to start operating in the first quarter of 2019. Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is financing construction of the first phase with loans of up to AUD150 million ($115m) to build the first stage of the wind farm. Banking firm Investec Australia is providing facilities totalling AUD39m for working capital and letters of credit.
South Australia has seen a wave of energy storage investments after authorities reviewed grid security in the wake of a state-wide blackout in September last year.
Last July, the state signed a deal for Tesla to deliver the world’s largest lithium-ion battery— a 100MW/129MWh Powerpack system to be paired with French utility Neoen’s Hornsdale wind farm near Jamestown.
In August, it was announced that the state would get a second large-scale battery to bolster power grid security in in a project valued at around AUD30m to build the 30MW/8MWh lithium-ion battery at the Dalrymple substation north of Yorketown.
