News

After a quiet period of several months, Queensland’s State Assessment and Referral Agency has seen a spike in development approval application activity as developers adjust to the state’s new planning codes.

Development approvals, including the now-required Social Impact Assessments and Community Benefit Agreements, are starting to flow back on to SARA’s radar after a period of uncertainty around the new planning laws - introduced in December last year - and a number of projects being called in by the state planning minister.

Kate Thorogood, Senior Associate with MinterEllison in Brisbane, said although development applications made under the new planning laws can still be called in by the state planning minister, it’s presumed there will be less political appetite to do so.

Looking at specific projects, SARA has opened the public notification period for RWE’s Tully BESS development application.

The 200 MW / 800 MWh Tully BESS will be a standalone, lithium-ion battery energy storage system at Tully, around 50km from Innisfail, in the Cassowary Coast Regional Council LGA of Far North Queensland.

The proposed project footprint is about 15 hectares adjacent to Powerlink’s 132kV Tully Sub-station.

Approximately 188 battery units will be installed within a development footprint of about 9 hectares within a total project area of 13.3 ha.

Construction is scheduled for 2027 taking up to 18 months with operations expected in 2028.

The more-or-less standard Community Benefit Agreement rate of $150 per MWh will apply.

The public notification period for Tully BESS is open from 21 September until 13 October.

Tully BESS is the second northern-most big battery project planned in Queensland with RATCH Australia’s less-advanced 200 MW El Arish BESS some 20km up the line (see map).

After a convoluted planning process, a planning approval application has been lodged for the 400 MW / 1600 MWh Rutherglen BESS proposed to be built on approximately 6.6ha of land located approximately 6km east of Bororen township in the Gladstone Regional Council LGA.

The project will connect to the existing F814 275kV Powerlink owned transmission line that is adjacent to the project site.

An earlier proposal for the project included a 900 MW solar farm, and a DA lodged with Gladstone Regional Council. However due to the changes in state planning laws the DA application was considered improperly made twice, and eventually required to be resubmitted through SARA.

The solar farm component has been removed from the project’s current DA.

An EPBC Act referral for Rutherglen BESS was approved by the federal environmental regulator in March this year. The project was also successful in federal Capacity Investment Scheme tender round 8.

Rutherglen BESS is being co-developed between Red Hill Renewable Energy and Ampyr Energy.

Another successfully tendered project in Capacity Investment Scheme round 8, the Byellee BESS, will also be assessed by SARA.

Byellee BESS project area covers approximately 3.5 hectares located adjacent to the Calliope River and with a short connection distance to the Calliope Sub-station.

Key components of the BESS will include 228 Fluence Gridstack Pro (GSP) 5000 lithium-ion battery units, 114 power electronic inverters, and an on-site 33kV/132kV sub-station to connect to the electricity grid.

Byellee BESS development is a partnership between Atria Energy and Eku Energy.

Last week we also covered SARA development applications for TE H2’s East End BESS and ACEN Australia’s proposed Lilyvale BESS.