State governments in New South Wales and Tasmania have granted approvals to two large-scale solar PV projects this week.
Conditional approvals for NSW solar-plus-storage
The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission has granted conditional approvals to a 215MW/50MWh solar-plus-storage project in the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
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Oxley solar – the project in question – will be subject to “strict” conditions including an updated and detailed landscape plan with on-site vegetation, appropriately integrating into the surrounding landscape and establishing a range of soil and water management measures. This follows objections from at least 50 people submitted to the Commission.
The AU$370 million (US$242 million) project was found, after an assessment by the Department of Planning and Environment, to be “in the public interest…a suitable site for renewable energy development, given its location within a [renewable energy zone], solar resources, existing land capability class, topography, avoidance of major environmental constraints, and good access to both the regional road network and the existing electrical transmission network.”
New South Wales currently has five confirmed REZs, which designate areas for a high penetration of renewable energies and storage to act as a sort of ‘power station’. In February, the NSW government officially launched the Illawarra REZ, which received 17GW of applications in its initial registration of interest.
Last month, the Australian government unveiled its new Contracts-for-Difference (CfD) scheme which will see it underwrite investments into 32GW of new renewable energy generation and storage capacity. Experts have called the scheme the ‘biggest news in Australian electricity policy’.
Tasmania’s biggest solar plant
In other news this week (12th December) the North Midlands Council, a Tasmanian local government, has approved the development application for a 288MW solar PV project.
The project will be the ‘biggest’ solar development in the state, according to a statement from the Tasmanian Premier’s office, with construction expected to begin in mid-2024 and operations forecast for 2026.
The site will deploy 670,000 solar modules over an area of 600 hectares. Supplier deals or technologies are yet to be disclosed.
Tasmania is seeking to double its renewable energy generation capacity by 2040. Minister for energy and renewables, Nick Duigan, said: “Increasing our renewable energy generation will help ensure Tasmania continues to have the lowest power prices in the nation.”
Indeed, a July report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) found that Tasmania had the lowest quarterly average electricity prices in the country in Q2, down as low as AU$64/MWh (US$42/MWh). The reason for lowered prices across Australia was a rise in renewable energy generation as a portion of total grid capacity.
There will be a feature-length piece on the recent landscape of Australian renewables investments in the upcoming December edition of our downstream journal, PV Tech Power.