Australia’s Lyon Group today unveiled an agreement with Chinese power producer China Huadian Corp to jointly develop and invest in power generation projects with integrated battery storage capacity in Asia.

The partnership will focus on battery energy storage systems (BESS) retrofit schemes in China and two other Asian countries, the development and acquisition of new and existing renewables power plants, and the addition of battery capacity to China Huadian’s new and existing assets. Additionally, the Chinese group will become the lead engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for Lyon’s solar-plus-battery sites in Australia.

"[Major utilities globally] understand that just continuing to invest in inflexible traditional solar and wind with uncontrolled energy that is destabilising and often wasted is not commercially sustainable," said David Green, Lyon Group’s chairman.

Last year, Lyon Group joined hands with Japan’s JERA Co Inc, an energy joint venture between TEPCO Fuel & Power Inc and Chubu Electric Power Co, and Fluence Energy LLC of Australia to pursue utility-scale battery storage opportunities in Asia Pacific markets. The trio then agreed to start with a portfolio of Lyon’s integrated solar and storage projects in Australia.