AGL's 2 GWh Mount Britton battery enters federal environmental review
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readTwo Australian battery projects have entered federal environmental review, Energy-Storage.news reported on 2 November. AGL Energy has referred its 500 MW / 2,000 MWh Mount Britton battery energy storage system near Nebo in central Queensland under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. Separately, developer ACEnergy has referred its 250 MW Joel Joel battery in western Victoria, which would connect to the terminal station of an existing wind-plus-storage hybrid plant.
The EPBC Act is Australia's main national environmental law. A referral asks the federal government to decide whether a project could affect matters of national environmental significance, such as threatened species, and therefore needs formal assessment and approval as a "controlled action". A referral is a request for that decision, not an approval.
ACEnergy signed a 3 GWh battery supply deal with CATL covering Joel Joel in August 2025, according to the report.
What it means
At 500 MW and 2,000 MWh, Mount Britton is sized for four hours at full output. The referral is the first federal gate: if the government rules the project is not a controlled action, it can proceed without a full federal assessment; if it is, the timeline lengthens. Neither project has a stated construction date in the report.