Australia’s Solar Mega Battery Sparks a Renewable Shift

Queensland’s Eurimbula solar-battery farm aims to power 200K homes by 2028.

14 Apr 2025

Sun-drenched Queensland has long been a natural home for solar energy. But until recently, the absence of effective storage has made it an unreliable contributor to Australia’s power grid. That may now begin to change. A UK-based firm, Elements Green, plans to build one of Australia’s largest integrated solar and battery sites, a $2bn venture near Gladstone capable of powering 200,000 homes by 2028.

The Eurimbula Renewable Energy Project, as it is now called, will fuse 696 megawatts of solar generation with 666 megawatts of battery storage. The aim is to capture solar energy when it is abundant and dispatch it when it is not, helping to smooth the intermittency that has plagued renewables. Queensland, which hopes to derive 70 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2032, sees the plant as a cornerstone of that transition.

The site, near Bororen, is already secured. Construction is set for 2026, with $400m in early development costs already sunk. The project has cleared key hurdles and is advancing through regulatory and grid-connection processes. Unlike many infrastructure efforts, it has garnered local support, partly by promising to preserve the land’s current use for cattle grazing. Minimal displacement and dual land use have made it more palatable than the average mega-project.

The project also speaks to a broader trend: the growing centrality of batteries in Australia’s energy strategy. As coal-fired power stations retire and solar and wind farms proliferate, batteries are stepping in as the new baseload, albeit of a fleeting sort. Storage remains expensive and technically challenging, but few alternatives are so scalable.

A Brisbane-based energy analyst described the project as “a smart, scalable template for future renewable investments.” That may be optimistic. But the ambition is clear, not merely to build a big battery, but to reframe energy infrastructure as a driver of rural employment, grid stability and climate adaptation.

Once known as Rodds Bay, the rebranded Eurimbula scheme now represents more than a name change. It signals a shift from patchy solar investments to integrated systems that promise reliability as well as green credentials. Australia’s renewable transition, often piecemeal, may finally be finding its form.