Joint venture ZEBRE acquires 333MWh BESS project in South Australia

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Construction on the project started in June last year after it had cleared the grid connection process in “record time”.

The Templers BESS is expected to enter commissioning in August 2025 and will connect to the National Electricity Market (NEM), which spans Australia’s eastern and southern coasts and the island state of Tasmania.

Once complete, the two companies claim the project will be the second-largest BESS in South Australia. The largest is French independent power producer (IPP) Neoen Australia’s 238.5MW/477MWh Blyth BESS, which entered commissioning last month.

The Templers BESS will participate in the various revenue-generating ancillary services and wholesale markets of Australia’s biggest interconnected system and provide system stability services to the grid.

ZEN Energy previously secured a long-term electricity supply contract for Templers with the South Australian government and, in March 2024, brought on board US-based infrastructure investor Stonepeak in a AU$70 million (US$46 million) deal.

The BESS arm of Chinese solar PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow is serving as the system integrator and BESS provider for the Templers project.

ZEBRE targets 1.4GW of renewables and energy storage in Australia

Since its launch, ZEBRE has acquired several development projects in Australia as it eyes creating a 1.4GW renewables and energy storage portfolio. 1GW of this figure will be comprised of energy storage.

The JV was launched as part of an expansion of HDRE and ZEN Energy’s collaboration. The two parties agreed to pursue energy storage and green hydrogen projects in Australia, Taiwan and potentially Japan in the future.

ZEBRE was established through HDRE II Trust, a trusted company wholly owned by HDRE, and Zen Future, a subsidiary of ZEN Energy. Under the current planned structure, HDRE Trust II will secure an equity ratio of 70%, with Zen Future obtaining the remaining 30%.

The first project the JV secured was the 210MW Solar River solar-plus-storage site in South Australia, which features a 256MW co-located BESS.

According to the development proposal, the organisation is varying the development approval to allow up to 8-hours of duration but plans to proceed in the near term with 2.5-hour duration by storage capacity. The project will connect to the ElectraNet network via the newly constructed Bundey substation.

Since then, the JV secured a 795MW greenfield solar PV and energy storage portfolio spanning four projects in March. The portfolio comprises an estimated total development volume of 695MW of energy storage and 100MW of solar PV.

IPP Northland Power’s 250MW/1,000MWh Oneida Energy Storage project in Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada, has entered commercial operations.

Governor of Virginia, US, Glenn Youngkin, has vetoed legislation aimed at raising energy storage targets in the state.

Developer and IPP Leeward Renewable Energy’s (LRE) 88MW/352MWh Chaparral Springs battery energy storage system (BESS) in Kern County, California is now fully operational.

7.15GW of renewables and energy storage projects have been granted access rights to connect to Australia’s first REZ in Central-West Orana.

AGL Energy has acquired two pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) sites in the Hunter region of New South Wales, totalling 13,930MWh.