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The first large-scale solar-battery hybrid on Australia’s main grid Quorn Park Solar Hybrid has officially celebrated its completion with a small gathering on Thursday 27 August.
Quorn Park Solar Hybrid, built and operated by Potentia Energy near Parkes, combines a 98 MW solar farm with a 20 MW / 40 MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), with the solar and battery designed and connected to operate together as an integrated hybrid power plant.
Potentia Energy's head of delivery Jeremy Jones said this integrated hybrid power plant is one of the first operations of its kind in the country as previously batteries and solar located on the same site had separate connections to the grid.
However, Quorn Park's solar and battery systems have one point of connection to the grid, which has been designed to allow its generation and storage systems to operate together.
Mr Jones said this gives them the flexibility with dispatching the energy generated, whether that is charging the battery or exporting to the grid directly.
Potentia Energy CEO Werther Esposito said Quorn Park is the main grid’s first large-scale solar-battery hybrid and an example of where the energy system is heading.
“As more renewables enter the grid, the challenge isn’t simply how much clean energy we can generate but how flexibly we can use it," Mr Esposito said.
“By combining solar generation and battery storage as a genuinely integrated facility, Quorn Park gives us greater flexibility to generate, store and dispatch renewable energy according to the needs of the grid."
Parkes Shire Council director of operations Logan Higneth said the project has been a fantastic investment into sustainable energy.
Mr Higneth said having such an innovative project in our backyard also lends itself to school trips end education to demonstrate what is capable.
Potentia Energy chief operations officer Gabriele Mallarini said delivering an integrated hybrid facility required close coordination across every aspect of design, construction, commissioning, and grid connection.
“Bringing solar and battery storage together as one plant adds a level of technical and operational complexity that goes well beyond simply building the two assets next to each other,” Mr Mallarini said.
“The achievement at Quorn Park is the result of an enormous amount of engineering, testing and collaboration across our team and our project partners."
When fully operational, Quorn Park is expected to produce about 200 GWh of renewable electricity each year, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of around 45,000 New South Wales homes.
Construction of Quorn Park began in late 2024 and included the installation of more than 160,000 solar modules, a 16-unit battery energy storage system and the electrical, control and connection infrastructure required to operate the two technologies as an integrated facility.
Over the course of park's construction there were over 200 people employed on site at the peak of activity.
Moving forward there will be two people employed on site full time, who will be joined by travelling crews of equipment specialists to undertake maintenance work.
Mr Jones said all equipment has been commissioned and Quorn Park has just wrapped up their hold point testing, with the integrated hybrid power plant conditionally released to fully export the power they generate to the grid.