If the US miner is found to have mined too close to a large jarrah tree, it would trigger an automatic cancellation of its right to mine much of its lease.
Grid-scale batteries are an increasingly important part of Australian power grids, with growth driven by plummeting prices and the surplus of daytime solar generation that can be used in the evening.
The state-owned utility needs to replace the generation capacity it will lose by closing down all its coal-fired power stations over the next four years.
