Renewables investment firm Octopus Investments Australia has acquired Queensland’s largest proposed battery, a 1GWh project dubbed Blackstone, according the the Australian Financial Review.
Related article: Octopus forms $10b renewable investment funds
If approved, the proposed battery will be built 30km outside Brisbane and will have the ability to power 70,000 homes for 24 hours. At 500MW/1GWh, the Blackstone battery is expected to bigger than the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery, which is Australia’s largest connected battery storage project.
Octopus will use its flagship fund OASIS—the Octopus Australia Sustainable Investments scheme—to purchase Blackstone from Sydney-based Firm Power.
Octopus has made a number of notable acquisitions in the Queensland market recently, snapping up the 220MWh Ardandra combined solar and storage project as well as the 180MW Dulacca Wind Farm.
Octopus Australia is majority owned by Britain’s Octopus Group, whose holdings span renewables, venture capital, and even financial advice.
Related article: Octopus to develop utility-scale solar storage power plants with CEFC
The OASIS platform has raised $550 million in the past year and, with cornerstone backers including Hostplus, Rest Super and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
