Residents of the ACT region will be able to invest in the territory's large-scale energy storage via a community co-investment fund when the 100 megawatt Capital Battery, now under construction near Oaks Estate, is switched on in the first half of next year.
Details of how much it will cost to buy a share in the energy storage system are still undisclosed but the giant French-based multi-national company Neoen, which owns the Capital Battery, is committed to delivering what it describes as "community benefit-sharing initiatives" under its corporate governance.
Community co-investment is where the community has the opportunity to invest in a commercial renewable energy asset and in return acquires rights to a portion of the earnings of the project, but has no decision-making power or control over its operation.
Community ownership is generally only applied to small and medium scale projects and the Capital Battery will be the first time in which this model will be applied to a large-scale storage battery. In Europe, some countries have legislated to ensure that their energy assets have stipulated levels of community ownership.
Back in late 2018, the Sapphire wind farm in northern NSW, which is one supplier of renewable energy to the ACT, offered up shares at $1250 each and has delivered a 6 per cent annual return to investors.
Neoen won the bid to build the Capital Battery from the ACT government's 2020 renewable energy auction.
The Capital Battery is part of the ACT's so-called "Stream 1" projects to bring 250 megawatts of grid-connected battery storage to the territory.
The battery was originally going to be 50MW in size but was doubled in capacity after it won a 100MW power purchase agreement for the Goyder South Stage 1 wind farm in South Australia.
The lithium-ion Capital Battery, which is being built just inside the ACT border next to the Queanbeyan substation on Railway St, will comprise of 627 separate battery units, with South Korean company Doosan GridTech engaged to manage the engineering, procurement and construction, delivering it as a "turnkey" project to Neoen.
Sitting on concrete slabs, each of the battery packs are enclosed in dust and waterproof cabinets similar in size to shipping containers, with their own thermal management systems. Each battery pack has an industrial inverter which converts the DC current to AC when discharging.
Tesla provided the 210 Megapack modular batteries for Neoen's Victorian Big Battery and is the preferred supplier for the Capital Battery. Each 210 Megapack can store over 3 MWh of energy, enough energy to power an average of 3,600 homes for one hour.
The French company is building a portfolio of battery storage assets around the world and the ACT battery will be its third in Australia.
The other two already in operation include two of the world's largest lithium-ion batteries: Hornsdale Power Reserve (150 MW) and the Victorian Big Battery (300 MW).
The company announced on Wednesday that it had completed the financial close on the ACT project, with equity provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Infradebt, a specialist infrastructure fund manager.
CEFC is Australia's government-owned so-called "green bank" which has made $1.45 billion in investments over the past financial year, including $295 million to EnergyConnect to upgrade much-needed electricity grid infrastructure across NSW, South Australia and Victoria.
Grid-scale batteries release energy in times of high demand, similar to how a battery on a home solar system works. They also help to stabilise the grid by maintaining a consistent frequency level, and earn kick backs for doing so.
In the Australian power system, voltage cycles 50 times in one second, meaning our system's frequency is 50 hertz. Multiple frequencies cannot operate alongside each other without damaging equipment.
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