The year 2024 will be remembered as one of mixed results for the energy transition. Worldwide demand for coal hit a peak, global warming went off the scale, and European solar and wind growth stalled. But at Pacific Green, there was plenty of progress. Here is a month-by-month review of some of the highlights.
January: Richborough connected
The year kicked off with Energy Global reporting on the grid connection of Richborough Energy Park, Pacific Green’s first battery storage project in the UK and the world.
The project, owned by Milan-based investment manager Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners, was commissioned and connected at the end of 2023, with enough capacity to power 250,000 homes for an hour.
“Richborough Energy Park’s 100 MW/100 MWh battery will boost the capacity and flexibility of the network,” said Energy Global.
February: Portland announced
As Pacific Green’s first project was yielding results, much bigger plans were taking shape halfway around the world. In February, Pacific Green announced plans for one of the biggest battery plants in Australia.
News of the 1 GW, 2.5 GWh Portland Energy Park followed Pacific Green’s Australian debut with a scheme in South Australia announced in 2023. Back in the UK, meanwhile, non-executive director Neil Carmichael joined other experts for a lively debate at International Energy Week.
March: lithium reviewed
The lithium-ion batteries being deployed in Australia, the UK and other Pacific Green markets have experienced cost challenges in recent years. But in March we reviewed research by the analyst firm BloombergNEF showing the cost of battery packs had fallen by 14% towards the end of 2023.
Lower lithium prices will mean better deals and more opportunities for certain sectors of the storage market, we noted.
April: Alexander interviewed
Pacific Green’s growing weight in the Australian market was increasingly garnering media attention by the second quarter of 2024. In April, Ecogeneration cornered Pacific Green Australia managing director and chief executive officer Joel Alexander to ask about steering the country to a cleaner energy future.
“Where our battery can soak up more solar and wind, and those solar and wind farms can stay online to support the transition to net zero, that’s a really positive outcome,” Alexander said.
May: finance analysed
Pacific Green has been at the forefront of securing project finance for its schemes in the UK, creating a globally repeatable template with the funding process used for the Sheaf and Richborough energy park schemes.
In May we made this expertise public through a paper titled ‘Making project finance work for battery energy storage projects.’ “The importance of project finance for renewable energy projects cannot be overstated,” we said.
June: markets expanded
While most of Pacific Green’s activity in 2024 has focused on massive growth in Australia, the company has also expanded its footprint into several promising European markets.
One of these is Poland, Europe’s tenth-largest economy, which is set to become a hotbed of energy storage project development as the share of renewable energy on its grid soars. Pacific Green is seeking locations for projects after a Polish auction saw 16 GW of storage capacity being registered.
July: Limestone consented
Pacific Green entered Australia in 2022 and by July this year we were able to announce planning consent for our first Australian scheme, the 500 MW, 1.5 GWh Limestone Coast Energy Park in South Australia.
Limestone Coast will be Pacific Green’s biggest project at launch but is just the first of a more than 8.5 GWh pipeline slated for development in Australia.
August: communities considered
As a responsible developer, Pacific Green has a firm commitment to care for local communities in all the schemes being developed around the world. We publicly set out this commitment in August in a paper titled Community First Batteries that looked specifically at our community-related engagement in Australia.
“In Australia, our approach can be and is being followed by other operators, and could be described as Consult, Commit, Contribute,” we said.
September: futures enabled
At Pacific Green we are keen to help drive the industry by sharing insights and best practice. To that end we publish regular insights and in September looked at how storage is helping to enable a cleaner energy future for Australia.
The country is currently ranked fifth worldwide in consultancy EY’s Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index, ahead of low-carbon generation behemoths such as the UK and Spain—and has led the world in per-capita solar and energy storage deployments, we noted.
October: achievements recognised
Our work on the Richborough Energy Park saw us being shortlisted for an Energy Storage Awards Developer of the Year prize in October.
Meanwhile, we continued to develop our UK strategy with the appointment of a dedicated development team comprising ex-Jones Lang LaSalle executives Steven Black and Fraser Blackwood. The team is based in Scotland and reports to Pacific Green Europe managing director Dane Wilkins.
November: carbon saved
Pacific Green’s core purpose is to help create a more sustainable future, so we were delighted when an analysis by Modo Energy found Richborough Energy Park 2 had cut more carbon emissions than any other battery project in the UK between January and September 2024.
One of two 50 MW/50 MWh units within Pacific Green’s first battery project, Richborough Energy Park 2 was found to have saved 12,945 tonnes of carbon emissions.
December: land acquired
In a year that has seen Pacific Green expanding at pace within the Australian market, it is perhaps only fitting that December kicked off with the news of further growth down under.
Alongside the Limestone Coast and Portland developments, Pacific Green has secured a parcel of land in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, for another energy park. The land is strategically co-located near TransGrid’s existing Wagga 330 kV substation and 16 km from the town of Wagga Wagga.
A future grid-connected battery park in this location will strengthen and support the region’s renewables assets by storing excess renewable energy and discharging it during peak demand, stabilising the grid and lowering electricity prices.
Then, to finish the year on a high, it was announced that Pacific Green had secured its first capacity market contract in Poland, for a 50MW / 200MWh battery energy storage project.
Publish date: 20 December, 2024