Limestone Coast Energy Park

500MW / 1,500MWh Battery Energy Storage Park in South Australia

The Limestone Coast Energy Park is a significant new grid-scale battery project to be developed in regional South Australia. It will deliver a major increase in energy storage capacity in the region, strengthening the state’s energy stability and supporting its net-zero transition.

Once operational, the 1.5GWh battery will charge excess renewable energy from the grid and discharge it at periods of peak demand – helping to stabilise the grid and energy costs for South Australian customers.

The energy park will have the capacity to store almost 60% of SA’s residential solar output for up to a 4 hour period, enabling an average of 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to be avoided each year by discharging renewable power to the grid during evening peak times and overnight.

80,000
tonnes of CO2 avoided per year
Source: Cornwall independant assessment, 2024
$53M
local economic impact
Source: ERC P/L 2024
110,000
SA homes powered / day
Calculation based on 60% of SA solar generation over 4-hour period

The location of the energy park site is adjacent to the South East Electrical Substation between Peweena Road and Mingbool Road, 10kms outside of Mount Gambier. This site is perfectly situated to connect into established transmission infrastructure with virtually no impact on the local landscape, communities, and ecology.

The battery will be made up of single-story modular units similar in size to a shipping container. In total the facility will cover approximately 6 hectares of land. The footprint of the energy park will not impact on any other buildings or roads and will not be visible beyond the immediate vicinity of the site.

Timeline

The Limestone Coast Energy Park is currently going through its regulatory approval process. As part of this process, we have finalised the concept design, informed by preliminary research and technical studies.

For further information on the project and to keep up to date with its progress, please click here to sign up for our community updates.

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Community and stakeholder consultation and engagement

Pacific Green is dedicated to creating a cleaner environment for our communities. We do this by delivering innovative energy storage solutions that enable Australia’s net-zero transition. Our presence in regions extends beyond the provision of clean energy solutions. We partner with communities where we deliver projects and support initiatives to develop wider social value creation beyond our core business.

Our relationships within communities commence from the early stages of a project through to construction and operations. From the outset we establish open, transparent and collaborative two-way conversations that ensure we are on the ground early to share our project plans, respond to questions and hear ideas the community might have to shape project design. Every community is different, and we value the time people take to engage with us as it helps us shape our projects in a way that suits the differing environments we operate in.

Through our Limestone Coast community engagement session in November 2023, we were provided with an opportunity to share our Energy Park proposal with a cross section of the community. At this session we learned about what mattered to people and answered many questions as we gathered thoughts and feedback. We look forward to hosting more sessions in the future to continue these important conversations.

In the meantime, should you want to discuss the project further, we would love to hear from you. Please send us an enquiry here and our project team will be in touch.

Pacific Green’s Limestone Coast Community Benefit Fund

Pacific Green takes pride in becoming part of communities in which we operate. As we expand our business across Australia, we will be searching for investment and partnership opportunities with value aligned community groups and organisations. Our aim is to create social value and build stronger communities, right across Australia.

Through our Community Benefit Fund, we aim to enrich the quality of life for Australians both locally and internationally, across key focus areas.

Pacific Green work closely with each community through our comprehensive community and stakeholder engagement programs. This ensures that we develop two-way, long-lasting relationships that foster a tailored approach to each region’s Community Benefit Fund. This in turn plays a vital role in supporting the development and success of the communities in which we operate, helping to create more meaningful, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes.

Read more about our commitment to community

Local benefits and employment opportunities

Pacific Green is committed to sustainably contributing to local employment and training while ensuring high labour standards. During construction of our projects, employment opportunities naturally peak and at these times our approach is to maximise local direct employment and training opportunities.

We prioritise hiring from within the local community to support regional economic development and growth. Our future initiatives will look to supporting local apprenticeships and education initiatives to support career progression in the renewable energy sector.

Pacific Green has nominated a principle contractor for each project. The balance of plan (BoP) scope for the Limestone Coast Energy Park includes the installation of the battery and inverter systems as well as the supply, construction, testing and commissioning of all other plant and equipment required to support the facility.

The BoP principle contractor will seek to engage local suppliers and service providers to support the site works (predominantly civil and electrical) as well as offsite manufacturing (structures, transportable buildings).

Early engagement with the local supply chain will allow the BoP contractor to understand the regional capacity and capability, to package works/subcontracts where possible, to provide maximum benefit to the project and local businesses alike.

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Artistic impression of Limestone Coast

Safety and Sustainability

The safety of our employees and the communities in which we operate takes precedence in all we do.

In addition to first-class technical engineering that’s designed to meet International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and Australian standards, all Pacific Green energy storage projects undergo rigorous safety and security testing to minimise safety risks.

The Limestone Coast Energy Park will come equipped with the latest lithium-ion battery technology incorporating several integrated fire safety measures. This will include both external monitoring and heat sensors as well as individual units within each battery container that are sealed and monitored with their own fire suppression systems. This means that if a single cell fails, this section of the battery is isolated and contained, thus protecting the rest of the container unit.

A Bushfire Management Plan (BMP) has been specifically designed to over-see the Limestone Coast Energy Park operations. The facility will also have a Risk Management Plan, Fire Management Plan and Emergency Management Plan with details on potential risk areas and mitigation measures in place.

The battery has an initial lifespan of 20 years but new generation cell technology will provide longer lifespan, so that the site can be renewed and enhanced continually, making the project sustainable into the future.