About the battery
How long will it take to build the battery?
Construction of the Mount Hopeful Battery will take around 18-30 months.
The Mount Hopeful Battery will have a capacity of up to 600MW with a storage duration of up to four hours. It is likely to be built in two stages. Once completed, the battery will take approximately 25 hectares of land. The battery cabinets are normally around 2.5 meters tall.
Where will it be located and why?
The Mount Hopeful Battery will be located next to the 275kV high-voltage power line that runs from Bouldercombe to Calliope River, on a freehold rural property approximately 15km south of the town of Bajool. The land was selected because it is flat, close to the electricity network, and in a rather isolated area.
What technology is being used for the project?
The Mount Hopeful Battery will utilise Lithium-Ion batteries and associated equipment from leading manufacturers. These manufacturers are selected through a competitive tender process.
The facility will be an orderly arrangement of battery cabinets, inverters and control systems including electrical and data cabling. The battery packs are enclosed in custom designed, dust and waterproof ‘cabinets’ made of steel. The cabinet colour will be white, or light coloured to assist with heat management and each cabinet has its own internal thermal management system.
What is the life cycle of the Battery?
Current battery technology comes with a 20-25 years warranty. The batteries will still retain the majority of their capacity during this period and will be capable of operating beyond it depending on market conditions and other factors.
The Mount Hopeful Battery will store energy in times of high production and release energy in times of high demand, similar to how a battery on a home solar system works. It will also help to stabilise the grid in a few different ways – it has an emergency response mode to prevent blackouts and it can maintain voltage and frequency levels.
What are the benefits of battery energy storage?
In making the transition from fossil fuels to ‘baseload’ renewables, the ability to store and dispatch energy will play a key role. Pumped hydro is an example of longer-term storage that is suitable for storing energy and releasing it over days or weeks. However, pumped hydro has a relatively slow ‘ramping’ time and is less suitable for providing rapid-response services to grid contingency events such as outages or heat waves (with high demand created by air-conditioning). Battery storage fills this key short-term role.
These are some of the functions a grid-scale lithium-ion battery may be expected to perform:
- Frequency support: To maintain the stability of the system, the grid has frequency control. The battery discharges electricity in response to frequency changes. The battery will also add competition to the market, reducing electricity costs.
- Virtual inertia: Like a cruise control button in your car, inertia services are a way of maintaining stability of the grid. A big battery can enable the advanced power inverters to emulate the existing inertia services being supplied by an ageing fleet of fossil fuel power plants.
- Network support: Grid-scale batteries can provide dynamic warp-speed responses so existing transmission lines can operate at full capacity. Like adding another lane to a freeway, the battery can unlock additional capacity on existing transmission networks, saving customers millions of dollars in expensive transmission line upgrades.
- Firming renewables: Along with wind and solar technologies, large-scale batteries help firm variable renewable energy. Batteries are an essential component in the stable transition to clean electricity and achieving emissions reduction targets.
Many of these services have been provided by coal and gas generators in the past. But as they close down, battery energy storage can, and is, being used to deliver these critical services.
ECONOMIC
The project will be privately financed by Neoen.
How is the battery reducing costs for consumers?
Mount Hopeful Battery can reduce costs for consumers in three ways:
- supporting more wind and solar, which are now the cheapest forms of power
- increasing competition in ancillary markets which lowers electricity prices
- helping to avoid blackouts and the associated costs
It is expected that Mount Hopeful Battery will create a significant volume of construction jobs and a number of full-time ongoing positions.
We will also provide opportunities for local suppliers, businesses, schools, and community groups.
Local
I live nearby – what impact will this have on me?
During construction, we expect some localised traffic, noise, and dust impacts.
However, we will be working with the community, neighbours, and council to minimise them as much as possible. Following installation, the battery will be visible at the site and will look like an enclosure of white containers.
How can I have my say on the project?
We will be working with the community throughout the project to understand local concerns and aspirations, and ensure we minimise any impacts. We encourage the community to provide feedback through completing the survey on the website home page.
How will the community benefit from the project?
We have a long-term approach to our projects and we are committed to sharing the benefits with surrounding communities. A Community Benefit-Sharing Scheme will be established for the life of the project. We’re keen to hear from the community about what form this would take.
SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT
What approvals are required for the project?
The Mount Hopeful Battery received development approval from the Queensland Government in 2022 and EPBC approval from the Commonwealth in 2024 as a component of the Mount Hopeful Wind Farm. Neoen has identified an opportunity to deploy the battery as a standalone asset to provide services to the national electricity market. A new development approval from Rockhampton Council would be required which we are aiming to submit in September 2025.
Will the battery increase the risk of fire?
The Mount Hopeful Battery will meet all relevant standards for fire safety, and we are working with the local fire authority to ensure the project also meets their requirements.
What happens to the batteries when they reach the end of their life?
We make a commitment that all above-ground infrastructure will be removed, and the site rehabilitated when the project ceases to operate. After removal, a large percentage of the material in the batteries will be reclaimed or recycled; over 60% of materials especially critical minerals will be recovered for re-use.
The Mount Hopeful Battery is using similar technology to the batteries that are being increasingly installed in homes, just on a larger scale. There are no known health risks associated with properly maintained large-scale battery installations.
Is the project reducing air quality?
Monitoring of dust levels during construction is a basic requirement of each project. Dust generating activities are assessed during windy conditions and are stopped and rescheduled where adequate control of dust generation cannot be achieved.
Visual observation of machinery is undertaken during site inspections in addition to daily pre-start checks which ensure all machinery has appropriate emission control devices, is in good working order and is maintained correctly.
