The Australian government has announced the results of the fourth Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) tender, with 6.6GW of renewables awarded long-term contracts.
Australia’s climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, confirmed the tender results this morning (9 October). The 20 winning projects span solar, wind and battery storage technologies, with solar-battery hybrid developments featuring prominently in the successful portfolio.
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The 6.6GW capacity allocation represents an expansion of renewable energy infrastructure supported through the CIS, building on previous tender rounds that have established the mechanism as a cornerstone of Australia’s clean energy transition policy.
Initially, Tender 4 of the CIS initiative sought 6GW of renewable energy generation in the National Electricity Market (NEM), the country’s biggest interconnected market, spanning Australia’s eastern and southern states and territories.
Bowen confirmed that the tender drew 84 bids representing 25.6GW, more than four times the 6GW target.
The scale of the latest tender outcome reflects growing developer confidence in the scheme’s revenue certainty model and the competitive pricing achieved through the tender process.
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) form a substantial component of the winning project portfolio, with hybrid solar-plus-storage developments demonstrating strong competitiveness in the tender evaluation.
The government said the projects will provide more than 12,000 construction jobs and over 1,000 long-term maintenance roles during the 20-year life of the assets, with around AU$17 billion (US$11.2 billion) in local investment, including around AU$1 billion in Australian steel.
Together, the successful projects have also committed an estimated AU$291 million in shared community benefits and AU$348 million in First Nations benefits.
Solar-plus-storage wins big in CIS Tender 4
The 20 successful projects will contribute to grid services, including capacity provision, frequency regulation, and voltage support, as Australia’s electricity system transitions toward renewable energy dominance.
Battery storage components within the winning portfolio will provide essential grid stability services during variable renewable energy generation periods, supporting system reliability as coal-fired power stations retire.
Specifically, 12 of the 20 projects feature some form of BESS, which will provide 3.5GW/11.4GWh of energy storage capacity in total.
You can read the full article, which includes a list of the successful projects in the CIS Tender 4, on Energy-Storage.news.
