Western Australia: 800MWh BESS & graphite project feasibility studies progress

• Renewable resource developer ZEN Energy has actually handled responsibility for a 600-800MWh battery energy storage space system (BESS) project in Western Australia while the regional government is funding a downstream graphite facility project for battery applications at the exact same place.

ZEN Energy is considering the feasibility and also possible shipment of the BESS project revealed earlier this month.

On the other hand, a downstream graphite processing facility in the exact same region is being explored by International Graphite (IG), an Australia-listed integrated mining and downstream graphite business, with funding from the city government. Both announcements were included in an ASX announcement by IG today (April 26).

Western Australia to get its own 'big battery'

Earlier this month, the Government of Western Australia announced it was giving AU$ 1 million (US$ 0.72 million) to Sunshot Energy for the first stage of a feasibility study into the Collie Battery and also Hydrogen Industrial Hub Project, which would consist of the large-scale BESS.

ZEN Energy has currently taken on the responsibility and also financing for the feasibility study and also possible delivery of the BESS project, which would have 200MW of power and between 600 and 800MWh of energy. Sunshot is an affiliate company of ZEN with common possession as well as monitoring as well as the two will consolidate right into one organisation in June this year.

The BESS project has actually been identified a 'big battery' by ZEN in a possible nod to the biggest operational BESS in Australia, the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery on the other side of the country, which browsed the web in December 2021. The largest project in advancement in the nation is a 2GWh BESS in New South Wales, approved last month.

ZEN claimed its BESS would assist take care of wholesale market danger by providing renewable resource to new and also existing industrial projects in Collie. It would certainly be an essential feature in the Collie Battery and also Hydrogen Industrial Hub Project, the company claimed. Collie is an area with substantial coal mining and energy sector task.

That larger Hub project is the centrepiece in the regional government's AU$ 100 million technique to develop a significant renewable energy centre in Collie and also change the local economic climate far from coal. A government statement claimed that the project, if it goes on, would certainly produce AU$ 730 numerous brand-new investment, 500 building jobs and 400 lasting ones.

Downstream graphite facilities for battery applications

ZEN Energy has actually additionally signed a non-binding MOU with IG to protect future agreements to supply energy to IG for the downstream graphite processing facilities it is creating in Collie. Graphite is made use of in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries in the case of both nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and also lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries.

IG is creating a facility to perform pilot testing of graphite focuses for purification and also spheroidising of graphite for battery anode material (BAM) applications, as well as to produce micronised graphite. IG has actually been granted AU$ 2 million towards the establishment of the micronising plant by the Western Australia government.

The firm claimed that a shallow graphite down payment in Springdale on the south coastline of Western Australia could feed the downstream processing activities at Collie (envisioned over).

ZEN Energy, which means Zero Emissions Currently, currently serves the electricity requirements of various government and economic sector organisations throughout Australia. Its significant investor is leading environment change financial expert teacher Ross Garnaut.