This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
EXCLUSIVE: AN offshore renewable energy developer has charged into Melbourne with the acquisition of a major industrial site in the inner west, where it plans to develop the largest energy storage project on the doorstep of the CBD, providing grid-scale reserve power to over 230,000 homes.
Taiwan’s HD Renewable Energy Co has expanded out of the country and zeroed in on Australia.
The company has acquired an industrial site at 34-40 Cawley Road, Yarraville for $9.20 million ($9.778 million including taxes).
The purchase price is a discount of 5% to the valuation of $9.7 million as assessed by Urbis.
Located in Yarraville, only 13kms from the Melbourne CBD, the property is adjacent to the West Gate Freeway and comprises a total land area of 7,452 sqm.
The property boasts a 110 metres frontage to the freeway and is currently improved by a large clear span warehouse providing 2,379 sqm of space.
The selling agents were Colliers’ Charlie Woodley and Anthony Ongarello in conjunction with CBRE’s Cameron Giles and Charlie Betts.
HD Renewable Energy is planning to develop a battery storage facility on the site.
The company said the site can support a 70 MW energy storage facility.
A 70 MW battery storage project can cost around $100 million based on data available by the federal government’s the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
A large-scale facility such as the one planned in Yarraville will be capable storing reserve power to over 233,000 homes for half an hour.
The project will be one of the biggest for inner city Melbourne and adds grid-scale capacity to the Victorian government’s energy storage initiative.
It will be larger than the 30 MW facility in Ballarat owned by AusNet Services and operated by Energy Australia; the 50 MW Tesla Gannawarra system owned by Edify Energy and Wirsol Energy and operated by Energy Australia.
But smaller than the Victorian Big Battery 300 MW storage project in Geelong, which stores enough energy in reserve to power over one million Victorian homes for half an hour.
Recently the Victorian government approved a 350 MW project by ACEnergy in the Wimmera region.
