Hamilton Locke has advised Energy Vault on the deployment of two battery energy storage systems (BESS) at ACEN Australia’s 720MW New England solar and battery project. The BESS project, located in the New England region of NSW, has a capacity of 200MW/400MWh.
The BESS will be charged and discharged to dispatch stored renewable energy at peak consumption hours and will reduce the local market’s reliance on legacy coal-fired power generation. The BESS deployments have been developed utilizing Energy Vault’s B-VAULT™ suite of fully integrated BESS solutions, and will be coupled with a Siemens S120 inverter.
The New England Solar project is one of the largest solar projects to participate in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) and is supported by the NSW Government’s Emerging Energy Program. ACEN also secured a Long Term Energy Service Agreement for the project.
“ACEN Australia’s New England Solar is a critical source of renewable energy for the NSW region, and we are proud to play a role in ensuring its ability to reliably provide the region with clean power in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible,” said Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault.
Lucas Sadler, Vice President of Sales – Asia Pacific, commented, “This transaction marks a significant step forward for Energy Vault in the Australian market. We are grateful for Hamilton Locke’s legal and strategic advice as we have entered the market and agreed this transaction.”
Commenting on the transaction, Matt Baumgurtel, Partner and New Energy Lead at Hamilton Locke said, “We are delighted to have assisted Energy Vault on its first deal in Australia. BESS projects play a significant role in firming renewable generation assets and are therefore vital to Australia’s clean energy transition.
We are particularly pleased to have advised Energy Vault on the interface between the solar and BESS components of the project. Ensuring a balanced risk allocation which caters to the practicalities of the interface is imperative for all solar and BESS projects in the NEM.”
Hamilton Locke advised Energy Vault on all aspects of the project, from the tender process to finalising and execution of the EPC and O&M Contracts.
The Hamilton Locke team was led by Partner and New Energy Lead, Matt Baumgurtel, with support from Special Counsel Adriaan van der Merwe, Lawyers William Ryan, Sally Yang, Eamonn Carpenter, Kusum KC and David Wan and Paralegals Michael Kallidas and Sam Poulsen.
