<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/huge-new-battery-will-be-able-to-power-south-pacific-island-for-three-hours-a-day-and-pave-way-for-more-solar/>
"New Caledonia, the Pacific’s third-largest island, is adding a big battery to
its still mostly fossil fuelled energy mix, one big enough to store enough
electricity to cover the equivalent of its main city’s power consumption for
around three hours each day.
French renewable energy developer Akuo said this week that it has started
construction on the 50 megawatt (MW), 150 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy
storage system (BESS) in the municipality of Boulouparis, in the south of New
Caledonia’s main island.
New Caledonia, some 1,210 kilometres east of Australia, has a population of
less than 300,000, but the bulk of its energy demand comes from its nickel
mining and refining industry, and the capital Noumea.
A 2022 report by the New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade ministry says nickel
mining accounts for between 75 to 80 per cent of New Caledonia’s total energy
usage, and the vast majority of this is supplied by fossil fuels.
The New Caledonian government adopted a transition plan in August 2023 which
targets a 75 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and a 50
per cent renewable energy target for the nickel sector by 2035.
As at 2022, a mix of solar, wind and hydro power only accounted for 5 per cent
of New Caledonia’s total energy supply. The remaining 95 per cent is supplied
by coal and oil.
Akuo already owns and operates three solar farms on the semi-autonomous French
territory, including one in Boulouparis – the 6 MW Kwita Wije photovoltaic
plant, which is itself backed by a 3 MW, 3 MWh storage facility.
It says the Boulouparis battery will be one of the biggest of its kind in
France, once it is completed in 2027.
Akuo says the new battery will store excess solar during the day and feed it
back into the grid during the evening peak. This 150 MWh capacity means the
battery will be capable of covering the equivalent of the capital Nouméa’s
power consumption for those three hours.
The battery will also serve as a network regulation tool, enabling rapid
response to frequency and voltage variations, and as a grid-forming technology,
helping to establish and restart the network if there is an outage."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
