Renewables developer AMPYR Australia has announced it will acquire Green Gold Energy’s Davenport battery energy storage system (BESS) project in South Australia, which has been renamed the Northern Battery.
Expected to start construction in 2026, the Northern Battery will provide up to eight hours of energy storage through a 270MW battery platform. The Northern Battery underscores AMPYR’s commitment to deliver 6GWh of operational battery storage to the Australian grid by 2030.
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Under the agreement, AMPYR will build a grid-forming, utility-scale battery, transforming the site of the decommissioned, coal-fired Northern Power Station in Port Augusta into a pillar of South Australia’s renewable energy future. Green Gold Energy (GGE), a local Adelaide-based renewables developer, has developed the project since 2023 and will continue to support project development.
One of the first decisions under the new partnership was to relocate the project to the former Northern Power Station precinct. The move capitalises on pre-existing substation infrastructure and minimises community impacts.
The revitalisation of existing industrial infrastructure through projects like the Northern Battery will play a critical function in stabilising the SA grid and providing enough storage to power over 300,000 average homes from SA’s abundant solar and wind.
“South Australia is one of the global benchmarks in renewable generation. The next phase of its energy transition will be dominated by energy storage, not generation. The accelerated deployment of long-duration grid-scale batteries is critical to strengthening system reliability and security while reducing consumer costs,” AMPYR CEO Alex Wonhas said.
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GGE managing director John Huang said, “GGE’s partnership with AMPYR represents a strategic milestone in this approach. The Northern Battery project is designed as an integrated model that combines grid-forming technology, intelligent storage and market-aligned dispatch, helping South Australia evolve from a leader in renewable uptake to a leader in sustainable renewable operation. The project is intended to serve as a scalable reference for the next phase of Australia’s energy-system transition.”
