Tour of the Hazelwood 150MW battery

Australian Community Media

The Hazelwood battery storage system was opened in Latrobe Valley, Victoria, has been in operation since December 2023, and can generate the power of about 30,000 homes for an hour.   Some vision provided by the Climate Council.

Transcript

00:00Big batteries like this one in the Latrobe Valley will be popping up all over regional Australia.

00:07For example, this power plant here is 150 megawatts but the Victorian government alone

00:15says that in the next 10 years there's going to be a need for about three and a half thousand

00:21megawatts of storage power. So we're standing here at NG's Hazelwood battery in the Latrobe

00:27Valley in Victoria. This is a 150 megawatt battery and can last for one hour and what

00:33that basically means is it can store the rooftop solar output from about 30,000 average Australian

00:37homes. It's a really interesting site because people, particularly Victorians, will know that

00:42the Latrobe Valley is historically the source of power in the state. It's the site of three

00:47big coal mines, the first of which has been closed here at Hazelwood and historically four

00:52big power stations, the first of which Hazelwood power station was demolished. It's a really

00:58interesting site because you can see what a clean energy future can actually look like.

01:01We've now had a coal power station demolished, we've got a mine that's been currently rehabilitated

01:06and here the Hazelwood battery is the first that was built on the site of a former coal

01:09power station. So it gives you an idea of what the future could look like not only here in

01:13the Latrobe Valley but also across Australia as we move away from coal and towards renewable

01:20energy. The way we get our energy is typically through this transmission line. So this feeds

01:28directly into the Victorian grid. So right now we're probably going to be charging at this

01:35time of day and that'll be basically on a mixture of coal, wind, definitely solar, and a mixture

01:44of those combined resources what's going to basically be charging the battery itself.

01:50Batteries form two key roles. The first one really is about making sure that the frequency

01:56of the grid, the way it basically runs, remains stable. And then the second very important one

02:02is that it's going to basically move the energy that's generated during the day like when it's

02:07you know sunny and there's lots of solar and wind. So restore that energy and then discharge

02:12it in the evening when we need it more.

02:16Look, it's an exciting time ahead. Lots of opportunities to develop more batteries. There's potential

02:24to develop another one, sort of a sister site right next door. So very much looking forward

02:29to that happening.

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