Federal election 2025: Energy Minister Chris Bowen to announce four big batteries to power WA homes

Four West Australian communities will be home to big batteries that can help power hundreds of thousands of homes after winning bids for the Federal Government’s renewable storage underwriting scheme. Energy Minister Chris Bowen will announce the successful capacity investment scheme projects at Marradong, Merredin, Muchea and near Waroona on Thursday when he arrives in WA. Combined, they will add 654MW of capacity to WA’s electricity grid by October 2027 – enough to supplement the evening peak demand in 600,000 homes for four hours. The idea is the batteries are then recharged the next day when renewables generate more power than is needed, and be ready to service the evening peak again. Assistant Energy Minister Josh Wilson said it was a “massive boost for cleaner, cheaper energy” in the State. “That this tender was substantially oversubscribed comes as no surprise. WA is a forward-leaning, ambitious energy state that is looking to harness the economic, social and environmental benefits of the global clean energy transition,” he said. The tender launched last September, coinciding with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese bringing his cabinet to WA, and received bids amounting to seven times more than the 500MW of capacity sought. Mr Bowen said the Government’s energy plan had led to record levels of renewables investment. “Now we’re seeing investors and developers outcompeting each other for the chance to deliver even more of the cheapest form of energy for Western Australia this decade,” he said. The new batteries will be built by PGS Energy, Atmos Renewables, Neoen and Frontier Energy and are expected to create hundreds of construction and operation jobs – including for local apprentices – and deliver $145 million in community benefits.