Horizon advances solar and battery solution to power remote WA town

Horizon Power has completed installation of 3,780 solar panels at a 2.4 MW solar farm near Leonora in Western Australia's Goldfields region. The system combines solar generation with a 9.9 MWh battery and 2.7 MW of diesel generation to form a hybrid microgrid. The project is designed to meet about 60% of Leonora's energy demand from solar and stored battery power, with diesel providing the firm backup. First power is expected in 2027 under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Pacific Energy. Horizon Power operates more than 35 microgrids across regional Western Australia, most still relying on gas or diesel as primary generation.

Where this fits

This project exemplifies the renewable-plus-battery model now standard in remote and regional Australia, but it reveals the ceiling on what that model can deliver. Leonora cannot run on solar and battery alone: even with a 2.4 MW solar farm and 9.9 MWh of storage, diesel must provide firm capacity and fill the gaps when sun and stored energy run out. The 60% renewable target is not ambition; it is the limit of what the technology can reliably supply. Every megawatt-hour the battery cannot store must come from diesel, and every kilowatt of firming capacity must be built and maintained in addition to the renewables.

What it means

Australia's regional grids are being engineered toward a permanent hybrid state: renewable generation plus battery storage plus diesel backup. This architecture works for towns, but it locks in long-term dependence on fuel imports and avoids the harder question of why firm, energy-dense alternatives like nuclear remain off the table. The real cost of the Leonora system is not the solar panels or battery pack; it is the perpetual diesel generation, the supply chain exposure, and the forgone option of genuinely dispatchable Australian power.