The
builder-owner-operator secures the underlying land in New South Wales for its
largest Australian BESS, advancing a 14-year contracted revenue project toward
construction.
September
3, 2026 | New South Wales, Australia: Energy Vault announced the completed
acquisition of the project land for its 125 MW / 1 GWh Stoney Creek Battery
Energy Storage System (BESS) in New South Wales, Australia, moving the project
from leased to fully owned status under the company's Build, Own & Operate
strategy. The milestone concludes the acquisition process that began with
Energy Vault's purchase of the project from developer Enervest Group and the
subsequent receipt of Foreign Investment Review Board approval. Stoney Creek is
designed to provide eight hours of dispatchable storage and is supported by a
14-year Long-Term Energy Service Agreement (LTESA) awarded through AEMO
Services under the New South Wales Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap, with
expected annual revenue of approximately US$25–30 million and anticipated
EBITDA of roughly US$20 million per annum once construction completes in 2027.
Energy Vault will deploy its VaultOS energy management platform to optimize
asset performance, market participation and lifecycle operations, and has
committed to significant local outcomes, including approximately US$100 million
in local goods and services during development and construction, community and
Indigenous services support funds, and 100% Australian-sourced steel.
According
to Akshay Ladwa, Chief Development and Operations Officer, Energy Vault,
“the completed land execution is another important execution milestone, as the
project advances towards construction. Further, Marco Terruzzin, Chief
Revenue Officer, Energy Vault, “described Australia as "a strategic
growth market" for the company”.
According
to TechSci Research, ownership of land may seem
like a peripheral detail in a battery storage project, but it is, in fact, the
point at which an energy storage asset becomes bankable. By converting leased
rights into outright ownership, Energy Vault removes a classic source of
project-finance friction site control and locks in the full value chain of the
Stoney Creek asset: land, contracted capacity, a long-duration operating
profile and a 14-year revenue contract awarded through a competitive state
procurement framework. The transaction illustrates the strategic migration
underway among energy storage developers from engineering-and-construction
contractors to independent power producers that build, own and operate assets
against contracted revenue.
Long-term
energy service agreements, of the kind underpinning Stoney Creek, effectively
convert storage infrastructure into annuity-like cash flows, de-risking
merchant-price exposure that has historically discouraged storage investment.
The eight-hour dispatch profile also reflects a broader market shift: as
renewable penetration deepens, demand is moving from short-duration frequency
services to multi-hour firming and capacity products, which is reshaping how
storage assets are specified, financed and valued.
For
the Australian market, projects like Stoney Creek contribute to the state's
contracted long-duration storage pipeline and demonstrate the viability of
storage as a load-shifting and reliability asset within the National
Electricity Market. Risks relate primarily to construction schedule, grid
connection timing, technology performance and the evolution of wholesale market
dynamics over the contract horizon.
TechSci Research
expects the modeled shift toward contracted, utility-scale storage with
strategic project ownership rather than pure supply to accelerate, particularly
in markets with formalized capacity and long-duration storage procurement
frameworks.