Community First Batteries

Grid-scale battery storage has gone from an idea to a reality in a little over a decade and is now playing a growing role in expanding green energy and grid stabilisation. But amidst the positive noise around batteries, legitimate concerns around localised social and environmental impacts persist. 

From an environmental perspective, while battery projects are relatively low impact compared to other energy infrastructure, there are potential implications for land use and habitat disruption. However, in jurisdictions such as the UK, the EU, the US, and Australia, the legal requirements for environmental protection are clear and robust. The material impact on the local environment is usually very small for operational batteries that have passed regulatory approval. Battery sites are usually strategically located near established transmission infrastructure and in remote areas, often already zoned for industry or agriculture with little, if any, biodiversity impacts. Indeed, revegetation efforts by many battery operators to create green boundaries around their sites can lead to a net benefit for the local environment. 

But what is the social impact of a big battery project? Here, the story is more complex. Communities close to battery projects rightly want to understand how they might benefit from having new infrastructure and industry in their region. What local investment might flow on from a battery project, what support will be delivered for local community facilities, and what green energy opportunities are available for local households? 

Battery operators need to be honest with local communities in their responses to these questions. While there is significant local investment through employment and supplier engagement during construction, grid-scale batteries are largely self-sufficient once they are up and running. And there are rarely any legal requirements for battery projects to deliver local social and economic benefits. It’s down to the operator to decide how far they want to go in delivering sustainable community benefits. 

At Pacific Green, we have decided to lean into this responsibility. We are proud of our projects's role in making Australia greener, but we also want to be proud of our impact locally. This means hiring and sourcing locally whenever possible. But we want to go beyond the battery by investing in local infrastructure, supporting community development projects, and fostering educational and training opportunities. This is what will deliver a positive and lasting impact for the communities who have given us their trust and approval to operate in their region. If done correctly and meaningfully, this approach not only enhances our social license to operate but also builds stronger, more resilient communities that are better positioned to support and benefit from sustainable energy advancements beyond us. 

Our approach to community first batteries 

In Australia, our approach can be and is being followed by other operators, and could be described as Consult, Commit, Contribute.

Consult

Our approach to the proposed 1.5GWh Energy Park in South Australia, despite relatively limited regulatory requirements on community consultation, was to  consult meaningfully with local communities to establish an understanding of the area we would be operating in. We developed a project-specific microsite, reached out directly to local landholders, councillors, and community leaders, and held a half day community consultation drop in event in the local down of Mount Gambier. We also undertook follow up research to learn about the profile of the local economy and community. 

Consultation like this gives project proponents and operators the insight they need to build meaningful social benefit action with tangible impact.   

Commit

Having established dialogue with local communities and gained insight on the area, our approach has two tracks. First, we create tailored commitments to local employment and procurement, especially at construction phase. Our goal is to work with local or regional workers and suppliers wherever viable and we commit to this via procurement policy. Second, through our Community Investment Fund, we take a strategic approach to identify opportunities to fund local projects that will deliver real community benefit. The fund – implemented once a project becomes operational – focuses on ways we can collaborate with groups to deliver immediate community benefit linked to longer term employment and industry opportunities, ideally aligned with the green transition we are powering. 

Contribute

Finally, we will start supporting our partners. With supplier and employee engagement this translates to jobs and contracts. 

Green energy infrastructure will clearly help Australian households and the environment we all live and work in. But green infrastructure can also deliver lasting benefits to local communities if project proponents take an active role in the process. If this happens, the net-zero transition can be a win-win at the national and local level.