After winning a competitive selection process, Tesla will supply 40 of its Megapack utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) to a project by Australian renewable energy developer Genex Power.
Genex Power said last week that a supply agreement has been signed with Tesla Motors Australia for the developer’s 50MW / 100MWh Bouldercombe Battery Project (BBP) after the competitive solicitation closed in August 2020.
Warrantied for 20 years, the all-in-one integrated lithium-ion battery Megapacks will be shipped fully assembly and factory tested from the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada, USA, to the project in Queensland, northeastern Australia.
Genex still has to take the project to financial close, but with a site secured and grid connection to the Powerlink Queensland transmission network expected to be confirmed in the fourth quarter of this calendar year, the company said the Tesla supply deal moves the project closer to that step.
Genex and Tesla have been working closely with the developer’s grid connection consultants to secure that grid connection, which was finalised and recently submitted and is now awaiting the network operator’s green light.
Genex is also in advanced negotiations for an off-take deal with a partner and it wants to conclude brokering that contract in tandem with closing the financing and taking a Final Investment Decision “in the coming months,” it said, in either the last three months of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022.
The project will be Genex’s first standalone BESS project, connected to a nearby Powerlink Queensland substation and it has received development approval from the local Rockhamption Regional Council.