Cleantech is obsessed with scale, with the industry racing to roll out the infrastructure needed to power the green transition. This challenge has led to ever-larger renewables projects reaching construction. This is a good thing—providing they can be developed without undue impact to the environment and local communities.
Australia is establishing a good track record in this regard, with the 70GW Western Green Energy Hub last year hailed as “the world’s largest planned renewable energy project.”
This megaproject is just the latest in a raft of large projects reaching or nearing approval across the country. In fact, the federal government has identified a list of projects it wants to see accelerated through its National Renewable Energy Priority List. And Pacific Green is at the forefront of this race for scale.
Construction of the 250MW, 500MWh Limestone Coast North energy park is about to begin on behalf of Intera Renewables. Once completed, the project will be two and a half times bigger than the Hornsdale Power Reserve when it became the world’s battery storage system just over seven years ago.
A second project, the 250MW, 1GWh Limestone Coast West Battery Park, has also received planning approval on the same site. But while clean energy scale is good, innovation is often better. Many low-carbon generation systems are relatively modern, which means they have plenty of scope for improvement.
Cost reduction is driving the rise of renewables
Solar panels, for example, have gone from costing USD$100 a watt in the 1970s to around a thousandth of that today. The cost of lithium-ion batteries, meanwhile, has fallen by 85% in the last 10 years and could drop a further 50% by the end of the decade.
Such cost reductions are great news because they are the main driving force behind the rise of renewables and progress towards a secure, equitable and sustainable energy system. Cost is not the whole story behind innovation, however.
In energy storage, improving performance is a big deal not just for cost but for a several other reasons as well. Much effort, for example, is being put into technologies that can improve storage’s power-to-energy ratio, so assets can deliver energy for longer.
Such long-duration energy storage units often use non-battery technologies—pumped hydro is the most obvious example. Battery chemistries different to lithium-ion, such as redox flow batteries, are also emerging as a viable alternative.
All these options are becoming more important as growing levels of renewables on the world’s grids call for increased energy arbitration to ensure stability, complementing the current generation of lithium-ion batteries that are commercially mature and can be deployed at speed and scale to meet decarbonisation targets.
Another important area of storage innovation is energy density. This is the amount of energy that you can pack into a given battery volume, and it is especially important for lithium-ion batteries because of their use in electric vehicles, where space is at a premium.
Energy density is driving research into solid-state batteries, which could allow cars to travel much further on a single charge. And energy density is also improving in the traditional lithium-ion sphere.
In February 2025, for instance, Gotion—a Pacific Green battery supplier—unveiled a 7MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) block that could accommodate 40% more energy in the space formerly required for a 5MWh unit. Gotion said its new 20-foot container system was based on a 587Ah Mega-Capacity Energy Storage Cell that was “setting a new benchmark for long-duration storage” with 430 watt-hours of power per litre, 1.87kWh per cell, more than 12,000 cycles and a lifespan of more than 25 years.
As Energy Storage News noted, “Packing more energy into a smaller footprint has been a key driver of the BESS industry’s push to ever higher energy densities, with 5MWh per 20-foot container now the minimum needed to compete.”
Separately, grid-scale lithium-ion battery technology is also seeing advances in cooling, with a transition from fans to thermal management systems that reduce noise, weight and fire risks by ensuring each cell is monitored and cooled. Such advances can minimise an energy storage project’s environmental impact on several fronts.
More energy-dense batteries require less materials per unit of storage, for example. A 100MWh BESS project, for instance, would need 20 5MWh containers but fewer than 15 7MWh units, cutting material requirements by more than 25%.
The reduction in containers also translates into a reduction in copper wires and other balance-of-plant material needs.
Clear business case for cutting-edge battery tech
Another environmental benefit is that project developers such as Pacific Green can pack more energy storage capacity into a smaller space, which can be important for schemes located in built-up areas where residents may be concerned about the clearance between houses and power infrastructure.
Reducing the space occupied by containers on a site can potentially deliver other environmental benefits, such as allowing units to be spaced optimally to reduce fire risks or freeing up land for agricultural activities or natural habitat restoration.
Such advantages provide a clear business case for adopting cutting-edge battery technology, although developers need to be aware that there are pitfalls as well. One is that not all innovations live up to their original promise.
This is notably the case in the battery sector, which is littered with failed original equipment manufacturers. Hence, it is important for BESS project developers to do due diligence on their suppliers and to work with partners that have a solid track record in technology development and commercialisation.
Another consideration is that battery technology is just one part a BESS project—and innovation in one area can affect others. We are starting to see this in BESS projects, where battery advances are beginning to outstrip the capacity of the inverters on the market.
Increasingly, though, vendors such as NR Electric are incorporating inverters into their power conversion systems.
Inverter technologies are also transitioning from grid-following into grid-forming units, providing reference voltages and frequencies and thus acting as virtual synchronous generators that contribute to grid stability.
With all these advances, it takes sound technical skills and an extensive knowledge of the BESS market to assemble the right technology mix for a world-leading project and ensure sustainable long-term returns for infrastructure investors such as Intera Renewables.
At Pacific Green, we have worked hard to develop these skills with a unique combination of on-the-ground experts within the markets we develop projects in, plus strong supply chain connections in manufacturing countries of origin such as China, where we have a large team of employees.
Based in Shanghai, our China team focuses on design, engineering and production management, leveraging strong relationships–underpinned by framework and joint venture agreements–to access cutting-edge renewable and energy transition technologies.
It is an innovative formula for a BESS developer—but given the importance of innovation in our industry, we think it is the right approach.
Publish date: 02 April, 2025