Energy Vault, ACEN Australia in deal for 400 MWh of battery energy deployments

Energy Vault Holdings announced the main contractual agreements for two battery energy storage system BESS deployments totaling 400 MWh in Australia. Construction on both deployments is expected to begin in the second half of 2024, with commercial operations expected in 2025 and 2026. The agreements are under final contract procedural preparation, and expected to be executed and closed formally within the first half of May 2024. Under the agreement, Energy Vault will deploy both a 50 MW/100 MWh BESS and a 150 MW/300 MWh BESS at ACEN Australia’s 720 MW New England Solar, one of the largest solar projects to participate in Australia’s National Electricity Market NEM. The BESS will be charged and discharged on a daily basis and designed to dispatch stored renewable energy at peak consumption hours to help meet the high demand during New South Wales’ peak load hours while reducing the region’s reliance on coal-fired power generation. Currently supported by the NSW Government’s Emerging Energy Program, the New England BESS project is a part of ACEN’s broader strategy in Australia, where they are actively developing over 1 GW of projects.