Equis Energy reveals plans to build battery storage at Lower Wonga

The rapidly growing renewable energy centre about 30km northwest of Gympie is poised to grow larger, with another major development proposed.

Equis Energy reveals plans to build batter storage at Lower Wonga, development lodged with Gympie Regional Council.

Lower Wonga’s transformation into a major state renewable centre continues to power forward with plans unveiled to build a battery storage facility a few hundred metres from the new $130m solar farm.

Renewable company Equis Energy has lodged plans to build a battery storage facility on a 10ha block about 700m southwest of the nearby Woolooga substation.

The substation itself will directly link with the solar farm, which is the brainchild of energy company Lightsource BP.

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The block is part of a wider 50ha property.

The development application lodged with Gympie Regional Council says the private landowner will keep the remainder of his lot for “rural pursuits”.

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Equis Energy reveals plans to build batter storage at Lower Wonga, near the Woolooga substation and multiple solar farms which have been given approval by Gympie Regional Council.

Equis’s facility will include 640 enclosures housing lithium-ion batteries.

It will be capable of storing up to 800MW hours of electricity, or the equivalent of four hours of storage duration, to be released at peak times.

Discussions with Powerlink about connecting the battery storage to the nearby solar farm are underway, the application says.

The batteries storage facility would include 640 enclosures containing lithium-ion batteries, designed to store energy for use during peak times.

The application says there are three other solar farm developments proposed to be built nearby, including Lightsource BP’s project.

The others are proposed by Bordstrong Developments (approved in June 2018), LGI Limited (approved in April 2019).

If approved it would be another feather in Equis’s renewable energy cap; the application says the company “has successfully developed over 11GW (Gigawatts) of renewable energy and over 220 renewable energy projects around the world”.