The first large-scale solar and battery storage project to be connected to the grid in Australia has started providing power to 3,000 homes and businesses in Far North Queensland (FNQ) while forming a test case for deliberate ‘islanding’.

Conergy’s AU$42.5 million (US$33.6 million) project includes a 10.8MW(AC) solar farm with more than 40,000 solar panels alongside a 1.4MW / 5.3MWh lithium-ion battery.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) provided AU$17.4 million in funding for the Lakeland Solar and Storage project on the Cape York Peninsula, near Cooktown, 240 kilometres north-west of Cairns.

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ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said: “The ambitious project by Conergy has helped to show the importance of combining storage technologies with large-scale solar. Lakeland is a demonstration for how integrated solar and batteries can together deliver dispatchable supply feeding electricity into the grid when it is needed, whether or not the sun is available at that moment.

“It will also be a test case for deliberate ‘islanding’, where a section of the grid continues to provide power while disconnected from the main grid.  This capability will increase the reliability of local supply and pave the way for other fringe of the grid locations.”

Read more: Energy Storage News