BW ESS Buys the 250 MW / 1,000 MWh Yanco Battery in New South Wales
Swiss storage owner BW ESS has bought the Yanco battery in the Riverina region of New South Wales: 250 MW and 1,000 MWh, four hours of storage, with construction due to start later this year.
The deal
BW ESS announced on 13 August that it has acquired the Yanco project from the Melbourne developer ACEnergy. The project has reached financial close, which ACEnergy describes as its fifth large-scale battery to do so. Construction is due to begin late in 2026, with commercial operation planned for 2028.
The battery will connect to the 132 kV Yanco substation, about 560 km south-west of Sydney. CATL is the system integrator, and ACLE Services is the balance of plant contractor. BW ESS says a capacity swap gives the project long-term contracted revenue. The company also quotes a $3 million voluntary planning agreement with Leeton Shire Council.
How big is 1,000 MWh?
BW ESS says Yanco could power about 430,000 homes for four hours. That is the company's own comparison, and we have not checked its assumptions. A better way to picture it: 250 MW is the rate at which the battery can discharge, and 1,000 MWh is how much it holds. At full output it would run for four hours.
For its Australian portfolio, BW ESS reports 1.3 GWh in commissioning, 1 GWh entering construction and about 2 GW of greenfield projects in the pipeline, according to ESS News.
Another financing the same day
ESS News also reported that Edify Energy reached financial close on two solar-plus-storage projects near Townsville in Queensland, Ganymirra and Majors Creek. Together they combine 360 MWp of solar with 1,200 MWh of batteries. Fourteen lenders committed AUD 3.2 billion across these and two earlier Edify projects, and both are backed by Australia's Capacity Investment Scheme, with operation expected in 2028.
Why this matters for home batteries
Australia is the world's most active home battery market, with a national rebate pushing hundreds of thousands of installations, as we covered when registrations fell in June after a rebate change. Large grid batteries like Yanco work in the same direction: they absorb midday solar and release it in the evening. We could not find a published estimate of how the two interact on prices, so treat any claim that big batteries make home batteries redundant, or the reverse, with caution.
Sources
- BW Group: BW ESS acquires 250MW / 1000MWh Yanco BESS from ACEnergy
- ESS News: Australian BESS moves, BW ESS buys 1 GWh project, Edify reaches financial close
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