Smithfield Battery
Smithfield, our third commercial-scale battery in Australia
The new Smithfield battery, with an installed capacity of 65 MW, is the third commercial-scale battery awarded to Iberdrola in Australia. A key energy storage system to advance the country's transition to a generation system powered by wind and solar energy.
Smithfield Battery
The Smithfield battery energy storage system (BESS) will have a capacity of 65 megawatts (MW) and 130 megawatt hours (MWh) of two-hour storage. This new lithium-ion battery is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2025, and will be located west of Sydney in the state of New South Wales.
Iberdrola Australia's project is one of three storage initiatives selected at the end of 2023 in the public tender called by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) through its services sector. In addition to the financial criteria, important aspects such as commitment to environmental conservation, local economic participation and community engagement were assessed.
Batteries for Australia's energy transition
The Smithfield BESS project is the third commercial-scale battery that Iberdrola has been awarded in Australia, joining the Wallgrove External link, opens in new window. (75 MW) and Lake Bonney (25 MW) projects in Iberdrola Australia's battery portfolio. This new energy storage facility will be under a Long Term Energy Services Agreement (LTESA) and will help manage the intermittency associated with wind and solar generation – ensuring the supply of green energy to the company's commercial and industrial customers.
Iberdrola Australia External link, opens in new window. CEO Ross Rolfe said: "Smithfield BESS will join our portfolio of flexible, fast-start firming assets. This capability is essential to providing customer-focused clean energy supply sources, where we, as a retailer, provide commercial and industrial businesses with reliable and affordable supplies of green energy".
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Iberdrola, world leader in renewable energies
At Iberdrola, we dare committed to renewable energy more than two decades ago as a fundamental pillar on which to build our safe, clean and competitive business model. Thanks to this vision, we are today world leaders in renewables, reaching 44,148 MW of clean energy in operation at the end of september 2024.
This commitment is reflected in our Strategic Plan, in which we will allocate €15.5bn gross to renewables. More than half of this amount is focused on offshore wind in the US, UK, France and Germany; 28% on onshore wind and 18% on solar.
10 years of West of Duddon Sands
ScottishPower Renewables and Ørsted are celebrating a decade of delivery in offshore wind as West of Duddon Sands windfarm marks its tenth year of operation.
Built and operated as a 50/50 partnership, the West of Duddon Sands windfarm was brought to life in 2014 and since then it has been powering a cleaner and greener future from the Irish Sea, around 14km off the Cumbrian coastline.
Over the last ten years, it has produced enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of around 340,000 homes each year – that’s the same as the size of the city of Leeds.
The project marked investment of more than £1 billion and supported more than 1,000 jobs at peak construction, with around 40 long-term skilled jobs created at its operations and maintenance base in Barrow-in Furness.
It also supported multi-million investment, jobs and growth at Belfast Harbour – the first purpose-built offshore wind installation and pre-assembly harbour in the UK and Ireland.
In its ten years of existence West of Duddon Sands also marks a milestone in the advancing construction technology of offshore wind. At the time of construction, the windfarm benefitted from using two of the world’s largest and most advanced vessels to install the foundations and turbine components, allowing work to continue offshore during one of the worst winters for storm force winds.
As its first-ever offshore windfarm, it has cemented its place in Iberdrola history and paved the way for ScottishPower to become one of the biggest players in the UK.