this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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Giant battery: first stage of Ruakākā Energy Park switched on (www.rnz.co.nz)
submitted 2 weeks ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz
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New Zealand's first super-sized grid-connected battery - built at a cost of $186 million - will help improve Northland's energy resilience in future power outages, Meridian Energy says.

The company said its Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) would also help smooth out power peaks and troughs, by storing energy when electricity is cheap and releasing it at times of peak demand, such as early mornings and evenings.

The battery park consisted of 80 shipping-container-sized batteries spread over a two-hectare site at Marsden Point, next the former oil refinery south of Whangārei.

Project director Alan de Lima said at full capacity the giant battery could supply 100 megawatts (MW) of power, enough for 60,000 homes or about half Northland's population, for two hours.

It had been connected to the grid since the beginning of the year and would start operating as soon as final tests had been signed off.

It was also stage one of Meridian's planned Ruakākā Energy Park.

Stage two would involve building a $227m 130MW solar farm, with 250,000 panels spread over 172ha of land next to the battery.

Work was due to start in August with power expected to start flowing in early 2027.

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[–] abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es 2 points 2 weeks ago

@Dave @liv Its horses for courses. Pumped hydro is great in areas with suitable terrain and for longer term storage. In other areas / applications batteries make sense. NZ is of course capital constrained. It would be great to do everything altogether all at once but its a journey right and you have to bring people along with you.

There is also a weird effect with new tech where delaying actually makes economic sense if costs are going down so you get the most bang for your buck by holding off for a bit.