ACE Power’s 8,000 MWh battery project clears federal environmental hurdle in Australian state

Developer ACE Power has received federal environmental clearance for its Eastern Hub Firming Battery, a proposed 1,000 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) with up to 8,000 MWh of capacity, located in the New England Renewable Energy Zone or REZ, in New South Wales (NSW).

On June 18, the project was granted a ‘not a controlled action’ decision under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. The ruling allows the project to proceed without a full federal assessment, a significant milestone that de-risks its development timeline. The decision was based on the project’s location on just over 102 hectares of primarily cleared agricultural land near Uralla, some 450km north of Sydney, in a region known as the Northern Tablelands, and situated at relative high elevations for the Australian landscape.

The BESS is specified with a 4-to-8-hour duration, signaling a strategic focus on energy arbitrage and long-duration firming capacity rather than solely on grid frequency services. The battery is the AUD$1.6 billion (USD $1billion) anchor project for the larger Hillview Energy Hub, which is also planned to include co-located 250-300 MW solar farm(s) and a 200-300 MW wind farm, though the BESS is designed to operate independently. It is designated as a State Significant Development and will now proceed through the NSW planning process.

The approval adds to ACE Power’s rapidly growing portfolio of large-scale storage assets across Australia, which includes the recently approved 3,600 MWh Nebo BESS and the 500 MW Raglan BESS, both in Queensland.