Trina Solar, a leading Chinese solar company, has announced plans to build what will be Australia’s largest battery storage facility in Kemerton, an industrial zone located south of Perth. The proposed project will have a capacity of up to 660 megawatts (MW) and 2,640 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage, surpassing other significant projects in the region, including Neoen’s 560 MW, 2,420 MWh Collie battery currently under construction and Ark Energy’s proposed 275 MW, 2,200 MWh Richmond Valley battery in New South Wales.
The size of battery projects in Australia is rapidly expanding, with many new installations far exceeding the capacity of earlier initiatives, such as Tesla’s original big battery at Hornsdale, which began in 2017 as a 100 MW, 129 MWh project and was later expanded to 150 MW and 197 MWh. Western Australia is currently home to at least three major battery projects, each sized at more than 2,000 MWh. Two of these projects are already under construction, including Neoen’s Collie battery and a 500 MW, 2,000 MWh battery by state-owned Synergy, also located in Collie.
Collie, the site of Western Australia’s last remaining coal-fired power generators, is set to phase out these facilities by 2030. Due to Western Australia’s main grid being isolated and not connected to any other national grid, the state must rely on its internal resources to meet its system service and storage requirements. Demand for energy is expected to rise significantly in the coming decades, driven by emerging green industries that require low-cost, zero-emission renewable energy supplies. State government modeling suggests that up to 50 gigawatts (GW) of new wind and solar capacity may be needed, all of which will require substantial battery storage support.
Trina Solar’s Kemerton battery will be located on approximately 19 hectares of land previously used for sand mining. The site is situated within an industrial area south of Kwinana, just three kilometers from the Kemerton terminal station, a major connection point. According to the planning application submitted to the Harvey Shire Council, “The sand mining operation is nearing the end of its life, presenting the opportunity to repurpose the site to align with the State’s renewable energy targets.”
The Kemerton industrial estate, spanning 2,000 hectares, has been the site of several previous battery project proposals, including one by Carnage Clean Energy over five years ago and a 200 MWh project put forward by Neoen in 2022, which was rejected by planning authorities. In February this year, Sunrise Energy also proposed a 100 MW, 400 MWh battery on the same land owned by Lyndon Edwards.
The Kemerton battery is one of three battery storage projects currently being developed by Trina Solar in Australia. The company is also pursuing the 500 MW, 1,000 MWh Kiewa Valley Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project in Victoria and the 270 MW, 540 MWh Augusta BESS in Port Paterson, South Australia. Trina Solar’s Kemerton battery will charge during the day, absorbing excess solar energy generated by rooftop solar systems and large-scale solar farms throughout the state. It will then discharge this stored energy back into the grid during evening peak demand times, enhancing the reliability of wind resources in the southern region by stabilizing their output.
Construction of the Kemerton battery is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2026 and will take approximately two years to complete. The project will require 800 battery units and 200 inverter units, though Trina Solar has not yet finalized its choice of contractor or suppliers. The company is still working on connectivity studies and detailed design planning.
