Which is why a new $42.5 million solar project by Conergy in Queensland’s north is so interesting, because it has a surprise or two in store.

Conergy Managing Director David McCallum said utility-scale storage and solar with effective management software is the “Holy Grail” of the global renewable energy industry, and the company’s Lakeland Solar & Storage project will have 5.3 megawatt-hours of storage available.

”This is an exciting opportunity to combine the latest developments in solar technology with utility-scale battery storage to feed consistent, quality power into the existing electricity grid,” Mr McCallum said.

Mr McCallum said Ergon Energy and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) had been project partners from the beginning and had assumed some of the risk.

Once all the pieces were in place, Conergy was able to sign an agreement with Origin Energy to sell the solar energy produced by the project.

Clean Energy Council Policy Manager Darren Gladman said the combination of solar and affordable storage would create extraordinary opportunities right across the country for clean energy.

“There is no question that we can connect much more renewable energy to the National Electricity Market than we currently have without creating issues.

We are fortunate to have a flexible and responsive electricity grid that can respond quickly to changes and manage increasing levels of renewables. But large-scale energy storage will enable us to go much further than we otherwise would.”

The Lakeland Solar & Storage project has attracted support from and resources companies are interested in the results. Conergy has forged a knowledge-sharing partnership with BHP Billiton, Origin Energy, Ergon Energy and ARENA.

Construction on the project is expected to finish in April 2017.