The State Government of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia has granted grid access rights to 4 wind, solar and energy storage projects, representing a combined 3.56 GW capacity in the South West Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
EnergyCo has selected Spark Renewables’ 1.007 GW Dinawan Energy Hub with wind, solar and battery technologies. The remaining 3 projects – Origin Energy’s 1.46 GW Yanco Delta of , BayWa’s 262.3 MW Bullawah Wind Farm, and the 832.1 MW Pottinger Energy Park of Someva and AGL Energy Hubs – comprise wind energy. The Pottinger project also incorporates battery storage. Altogether, the battery capacity awarded totals over 700 MW.
These projects were selected following a competitive solicitation process conducted by AEMO Services Limited. As against the 3.98 GW offered for AEMO’s access rights tender for South West REZ, it had offers coming in for 15 GW of generation and storage projects, 4x the indicative capacity (see 15 GW Generation and Storage Projects For NSW’s South West REZ).
“These projects will help ensure NSW has enough renewable energy generation and storage when coal-fired power stations retire. They also give certainty to host-communities, who will directly benefit from the fees paid by these companies to connect to the REZ,” said the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Penny Sharpe.
South West REZ covers the areas around Hay and includes the towns of Balranald and Buronga, which are high on wind and solar resources. These are also located close to existing and planned high-voltage transmission. It is expected to drive more than AUD 17 billion ($11 billion) in private investment in solar, wind and energy storage projects.
Initial projects in this REZ are expected to come online from 2027 to 2030.
NSW is also working on 4 other REZs, namely Central-West Orana, New England, Hunter-Central Coast, and Illawarra, as part of its Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap, under which it will replace coal-fired power plants with renewable energy.
The Australian state is also targeting 1 million solar and storage households and small businesses by 2035 (see NSW Targets Rooftop Solar + Battery System For 1 Million Roofs).
