Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has secured a critical federal environmental clearance for its Supernode North battery energy storage system in Queensland, Australia, advancing what would become one of the largest standalone battery projects in the southern hemisphere.
Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water determined on 17 March that the 780MW Supernode North BESS and its associated substation qualify as a “not controlled action” under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for the project. Energy-Storage.News
The decision was swift. Weeks elapsed between the project’s formal referral and federal clearance — a speed that underscores mounting institutional confidence in large-scale energy storage infrastructure.
What Is Being Built and Where
The facility will be located in Woodstock, approximately 45 kilometres south of Townsville, on a 41-hectare site spanning two adjoining allotments and the Bidwilli Road reserve. The project area comprises former CSIRO agricultural research land previously used for cropping and grazing studies. Energy-Storage.News
The battery system will use lithium-ion technology housed in standardised container units, supported by bi-directional inverters, transformers, and a substation containing switchgear and control systems. IndexBox
Supernode North is Quinbrook’s second major battery development in Queensland. It is distinct from, and complementary to, the company’s operational South Pine project near Brisbane — placing large-scale storage capacity at both ends of the state’s transmission corridor.
Industrial Anchor: The Lansdowne Eco-Industrial Precinct
The strategic significance of the Woodstock site extends beyond grid support. Supernode North will be co-located with a proposed metallurgical silicon production facility within the Lansdowne Eco-Industrial Precinct, just outside Townsville Energymagazine — a development that ties industrial energy storage directly to manufacturing capacity in North Queensland.
The Supernode North development is intended to support power supply for a nearby eco-industrial precinct, including a manufacturing facility considered significant for regional industrial diversification. IndexBox That manufacturing component is a polysilicon plant intended to produce feedstock for Australian-made solar panels, completing a vertically integrated clean energy supply chain on a single precinct.
The Broader Supernode Platform
Quinbrook’s Supernode programme is one of the most consequential energy storage build-outs in Australia’s history, and its momentum in 2026 is concrete.
In early 2026, Quinbrook commenced commercial operations for the 260MW/619MWh Stage One of its South Pine project, which is now delivering its full output to the Queensland electricity grid and the National Electricity Market under a 12-year tolling agreement managed by Origin Energy. Energy-Storage.News
Located adjacent to the central node of Queensland’s electricity transmission network, the South Pine facility is positioned where approximately 80% of the state’s electricity flows daily. Construction is ongoing for stages two and three at South Pine, which will increase total capacity to 780MW/3,074MWh by 2027. Energy-Storage.News
Quinbrook’s total investment for Stages 1, 2, and 3 is expected to exceed AU$1.4 billion, with priority given to sourcing local labour, services, and equipment from Brisbane and South-East Queensland. Esdnews
Long-Duration Storage: The CATL Partnership
Quinbrook is not limiting its ambition to lithium-ion short-duration storage. The company plans to deploy approximately 3GW of its EnerQB long-duration energy storage technology across Australia, equivalent to 24GWh of storage capacity. Energy-Storage.News EnerQB was developed in partnership with CATL, and Quinbrook’s South Pine Stage Four expansion — currently in pre-construction — is expected to host the technology’s first deployment. Energy-Storage.News
That partnership positions Quinbrook as a likely early anchor for CATL’s long-duration storage commercialisation outside of China, with the South Pine site serving as the global demonstration asset.
Capital and Offtake Structure
Origin Energy has contracted 100% of the capacity for Stages 1 and 2 under long-term agreements. Quinbrook also secured a 1,010MWh offtake agreement with Stanwell Corporation, Queensland’s government-owned energy generator, for the project’s third stage. Energy-Storage.News
The full contracting of all three Supernode South Pine stages — ahead of schedule — signals that institutional offtakers are treating Quinbrook’s infrastructure as a long-term grid asset, not a speculative bet.
Why It Matters
The federal EPBC clearance on 17 March moves Supernode North into state-level approvals, the next regulatory gate before construction can commence. The project now carries full federal environmental authority — a meaningful de-risking event for investors, contractors, and co-located industrial partners on the Lansdowne precinct.
For Queensland’s energy infrastructure, the implications are structural. The state is managing an accelerating shift toward solar generation, and battery storage at scale is the mechanism by which that solar output — abundant midday, absent at dusk — becomes reliable dispatchable power. Two 780MW-class battery systems, anchored at the transmission network’s north and south nodes, represent a meaningful step toward that architecture.
For the energy storage sector globally, Supernode North represents one of the clearest examples of industrial-scale storage being designed not only to stabilise a grid, but to power adjacent manufacturing — a model increasingly referenced in policy discussions across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
