Perth company WestGen has dropped its plan for a solar farm near Byford and instead is aiming to build a 40-megawatt battery energy storage system on the same site.
Perth company WestGen has dropped its plan for a solar farm near Byford and instead is aiming to build a 40-megawatt battery energy storage system on the same site.
Director Richard Harris said WestGen was aiming to gain approvals and lock-in financing for the battery project by the middle of next year.
He expects the cost will be about half the $140 million that WestGen’s solar farm was budgeted to cost.
The change of plan comes nearly a decade after WestGen gained development approval for its solar farm, in 2016.
It has subsequently obtained multiple two-year extensions, most recently in August 2022, to the frustration of neighbouring residents.
Mr Harris said the DA for the solar farm had lapsed and the company was yet to submit an application for the battery.
He expects the smaller footprint of the battery will make the approvals process much simpler.
“It’s a lot less intrusive environmentally,” Mr Harris said.
“We’d expect to get that done in 2026.”
He said the continued rapid growth of rooftop solar meant it was not viable to build a commercial-scale solar farm in the South West.
“Solar is very difficult to finance on its own,” Mr Harris said.
He said WestGen’s proposed battery would absorb a lot of the surplus electricity generated by households in the area.
As such, it would help Western Power manage load fluctuations.
The battery would also be designed to feed low-voltage electricity straight into Western Power’s distribution network.
In this regard, it would differ from the much larger batteries that Neoen, Synergy and Alinta are currently building.
These are designed to feed high-voltage electricity into the transmission network.
“We want to go straight into the distribution system,” Mr Harris said.
The proposed Oakford Battery would connect to Western Power’s Byford sub-station via a seven-kilometre underground cable.
Mr Harris said WestGen, which has experienced executives Waren Murphy, Tym Duncanson and Kyle Jackson on its board, was continuing to assess other battery project opportunities, at Neerabup and Busselton.
In each case, the company would evaluate building a small solar farm after its battery is up and running.
