The New South Wales government has announced today (23 April) 3.5GW of solar PV, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and wind generation that have been granted the right to connect to the South West renewable energy zone (REZ).
Following a competitive tender process led by AEMO Services, the Energy Corporation of New South Wales confirmed that Origin Energy, Spark Renewables, Someva Pty, AGL Energy and BayWa r.e. have successfully secured access to the REZ.
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The successful projects are mostly dominated by wind generation, with each of the four projects incorporating the technology into its designs. Only one site has a form of solar PV generation, whilst battery energy storage will be stationed at two of the sites.
Origin Energy’s Yanco Delta wind farm, Spark Renewables Dinawan Energy Hub, Someva’s Pottinger Energy Park and BayWa’s Bullawah Wind Farm have been announced as the successful projects.
The Yanco Delta wind farm, with a generation capacity of 1,460MW, was acquired in April 2024 from Virya Energy. It is located on a 33,000-hectare site 10km north-west of Jerilderie in the Riverina district.
The other solely wind generation project is BayWa r.e. Australia’s Bullawah Wind Farm, with a generation capacity of 262.3MW. The project could be scaled to include around 1,000MW of generation.
The only project to incorporate solar PV is Spark Renewables’ Dinawan Energy Hub, which will have a capacity of 1,007MW spread across solar, wind and battery energy storage.
The hybrid site, located within the Riverina region of New South Wales, will be within the heart of the REZ. According to the project’s website, there will be around 800MW of solar PV, 1,200MW of wind and a 300MW/600MWh BESS. It has not been specified how much of the awarded REZ capacity will be allocated to each technology.
The last successful project granted the right to connect to the REZ is Someva’s Pottinger Energy Park, which is being developed with AGL Energy. With a capacity of 832.1MW having been awarded, this will be spread across wind generation and a co-located BESS.
Penny Sharpe, the New South Wales minister for climate change and energy, said the REZ will unlock around AU$17 billion (US$10.85 billion) in private investment across solar, wind and energy storage.
“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,” Sharpe added.
The first projects are expected to come online from 2027 to 2030.
REZ sites in New South Wales
PV Tech has previously reported that the New South Wales government is developing at least five separate multi-gigawatt REZ facilities connected to the grid and partially using long-duration energy storage (LDES) to replace traditional centralised power plants.
The five REZs include the Hunter-Central Coast, the South-West, New England, Central-West Orana, and Illawarra.
The REZ are not restricted to New South Wales but are scattered across the country’s states. Queensland, for instance, recently published a roadmap detailing how it would develop its 12 REZs. Victoria, on the other hand, has identified six REZ locations.
Construction on Australia’s first REZ, the Central-West Orana, is set to begin at the halfway point of 2025. ACEREZ, a consortium of ACCIONA, COBRA and Endeavour Energy, were selected by EnergyCo earlier this month to deliver the significant project.
