Squadron lands federal tick for Queensland solar and battery project

Squadron Energy and Windlab have cleared environmental approval for a 500 MW solar farm and 100 MW / 400 MWh battery storage facility at Bungaban in Queensland's Western Downs, alongside a separate 1.4 GW wind project on the same 1,500-hectare site. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water determined the projects are not controlled actions under the EPBC Act. Solar construction is planned for mid-2028, wind for 2027. The developers argue the co-location of wind, solar and battery will deliver "renewable electricity across more hours of the day" and support grid reliability.

Where this fits

This is a textbook Australian renewables-build story: a large, geographically concentrated portfolio of weather-dependent assets (2.9 GW of wind and solar) backed by a four-hour battery (400 MWh at 100 MW discharge = 4 hours of full output at rated power). The battery framing as a reliability solution masks the core problem: it covers only a fraction of the weather-dependent variability these plants will face. The real cost of grid reliability, the transmission overbuild, the fossil-fuel firming required when wind and solar output collapse, and the whole-system engineering to knit them together, remains invisible in the approval process and in the developer's claims. Firm dispatchable capacity is still the backbone of a reliable grid; this project does not provide it.

What it means

Australia continues building renewable capacity while underpricing the cost of intermittency. Bungaban will draw on China's supply chains for panels, inverters and battery cells; the grid will draw on gas peaking plants for the hours when output is zero. A 2.9 GW nuclear plant would occupy far less land, generate firm power 24/7, and break Australia's dependence on Chinese energy manufacturing. Instead, we approve another weather-dependent asset and call it resilience.