A new solar battery as big as a football field in outback South Australia will help stabilise the state's volatile electricity network, a developer says.
Lyon Solar has announced it will build a 4000 square-metre battery near Roxby Downs, alongside its Kingfisher solar project, with both up and running by late 2017.
The company says the $400 million solar panel and battery project will help SA use renewable energy without destabilising the electricity network.
"The connection of renewables to the grid without batteries to manage their intermittent energy flows has the potential to create problems for the national electricity grid," Lyon partner David Green said.
"We have to translate solar into the secure and reliable source of power 24 hours a day, seven days a week that it can be."
Mr Green said in times of failures or peak demand, the outback battery could ensure the entire state did not face outages.
"If the interconnector between Victoria and South Australia fails, the battery will instantaneously compensate," he said.
No one has formally agreed to use the energy from the solar battery yet, but Lyon is in discussions with the state government and large energy users.
Lyon's SA projects are being funded by large overseas businesses and a US investment fund.
