Failed SolarReserve project given second life in South Australia

Australian thermal energy storage company 1414 Degrees will buy SolarReserve’s ill-fated Aurora site in Port Augusta to build a solar farm and large-scale storage system.

The company, based in Adelaide, South Australia, plans to build up to 400MW of solar PV on the site and install a grid-scale Thermal Energy Storage System, which it calls TESS-GRID.

1414 Degrees aims to progressively scale up the storage capacity to several thousand MWh. It says a TESS-GRID at this scale would be able to supply many hours of dispatchable electricity with spinning reserve from its turbines and a range of frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) to support grid stability.

The electrically charged TESS-GRID could also potentially buy and store electricity generated by other renewable farms on the high voltage transmission network in the region, strengthening firming services and earnings from market arbitrage.

The Aurora Solar Energy Project, about 300km north of the South Australian capital Adelaide, has SA Government development approval for a 70 MW solar PV farm and 150 MW of generation from a concentrated solar thermal plant.

The AU$650 million plant would have been the biggest of its kind in the world and was approved to incorporate eight hours…