Quinbrook powers Aus ‘return’ with $2.5bn project

Quinbrook Infrastructure will build a new data and battery project outside Brisbane, marking its ‘return’ to investing in Australia following Labor’s election win.

Supernode will link to the South Pine substation at Brendale, the centre of Queensland’s energy grid. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a private investment fund specialising in renewable energy infrastructure, has unveiled plans for a $2.5bn data and battery storage facility outside Brisbane, to be powered by wind and solar.

The 8000 megawatt Supernode project is strategically located in the northern suburb of Brendale, the central node of Queensland’s electricity grid with three high voltage connections, and will have direct connections to an international sub-sea data communications network.

It will host third-party data centre operations and be powered by solar and wind farms, backed up by a 2000 megawatt-hour battery that will help to stabilise the state’s power supply, Quinbrook said.

The project will help to “support the power grid at a critical stage of the state’s energy transition, when prices are high and volatility is rife,” said Quinbrook co-founder David Scaysbrook.

The size of the battery will make for a more secure energy connection, he added.

The site of Quinbrook’s new battery and data storage project. Picture: Zak Simmonds

The site will also intersect the new Torus dark fibre cable, currently under construction, which directly connects Brisbane to the international sub-sea cable recently landed at Maroochydore from Guam.

One of the country’s largest energy investors, Quinbrook announced in May its “return” to the Australian market after Labor’s federal election win.

Mr Scaysbrook had previously declared the company had “given up” on the Coalition and focused its investments elsewhere.

Only 30km from the Brisbane CBD, the renewable energy “campus” will parallel Quinbrook’s projects in the US and support the development of a digital economy in Queensland, Mr Scaysbrook said on Friday.

“This is the critical communications infrastructure needed by progressive industry in this state,” he said.

“It represents a competitive advantage in achieving net zero operations at low cost that may become the envy of competing economies world over.”

“Queensland can now compete more aggressively with the rest of Australia on the fundamentals of cost, sustainability of operations and latency in order to attract leading data storage operators. We will help attract new digital industries to come and flourish here and prosper sustainably by using locally produced, low cost, carbon-free renewable power and excellent data connectivity.”

“This is one of the major new economy projects coming to Queensland thanks to the government’s strategic investment in digital technology infrastructure and renewable energy,” said Queensland Acting Premier Steven Miles.

“Today’s announcement shows what the future holds for Queensland’s digital and renewables economy and the creation of knowledge-based jobs.”