Australia’s New South Wales government has pitched developing the state’s first urban renewable energy zone (REZ) in the Illawarra, which could be delivered as early as 2030.
A traditional REZ, like the Central-West Orana, focuses on deploying utility-scale renewable energy generation, energy storage, and transmission projects, functioning similarly to a “modern-day power plant.”
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In contrast, an urban REZ focuses on supporting distributed generation, such as rooftop solar PV systems and consumer energy resources (CERs).
Rooftop solar PV, in particular, could support the creation of the urban REZ whilst deploying community battery energy storage systems (BESS), which could help capture this renewable energy generation and distribute it across the coastal region.
Despite the strong uptake of rooftop solar PV in Australia, which recently surpassed 25GW and generated 2,038GWh in the National Electricity Market (NEM) last month, home BESS have staggered behind. The Labor government aims to tackle this via its upcoming Cheaper Home Batteries Program, as reported by our sister site Energy-Storage.news.
Developing an urban REZ could also help increase the uptake of rooftop solar PV systems on spare commercial and government-owned roof space.
The New South Wales government, via its energy company, the Energy Corporation of New South Wales (EnergyCo), will now host an Illawarra REZ Roundtable. This will allow energy experts, business leaders, and community representatives to map the REZ’s next steps.
Penny Sharpe, the New South Wales minister for climate change and energy, highlighted the region’s potential in becoming the state’s first urban REZ.
“This is a chance to leverage the community’s enthusiasm for solar, batteries and EVs to benefit the entire region, as well as pursue longer-term opportunities to support green manufacturing,” Sharpe said.
“The Roundtable is an opportunity for community, industry and energy leaders to map out the next steps for unlocking clean, reliable and affordable energy for the Illawarra REZ.”
New South Wales’ urban REZ vs Queensland’s local REZ
Although this is the first urban REZ proposed in New South Wales, a similar REZ has been floated in Queensland under the name of a ‘local REZ (LREZ)’. Several have been proposed, including in Townsville and Caloundra.
Similarly to the proposed urban REZ, these LREZ would couple rooftop solar PV generation with BESS. The former premier of Queensland, Steven Miles, hoped these would “put Sunshine Coast rooftops at the centre of the renewable energy transition.”
However, since these were initially proposed, Steven Miles’ government has been ousted by David Crisafulli’s right-wing Liberal National Party (LNP) of Queensland in the most recent state election.
Since taking office, the Crisafulli government has made several rollbacks on renewable energy policy and projects, including cancelling what was touted as the world’s largest pumped hydro energy storage project: the 120GWh Pioneer-Burdekin site.
It is unknown how Queensland’s proposed REZ and the LREZs are to be affected by the change of government.
