New South Wales Renewable Energy Zone first to hit Environmental Impact Statement ‘milestone’

October 2, 2023
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
A large-scale solar PV plant in New South Wales, Australia. Image: RWE.

New South Wales has submitted an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for its Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), making it the first REZ to reach the development “milestone”.

The government of the Australian state is developing at least five separate multi-gigawatt REZ facilities, connected to the grid and using long-duration energy storage (LDES) to partly replace traditional centralised power plants.  

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

Roughly 20,000km2, Central-West Orana REZ will be built near the villages of Dunedoo, Mudgee and Dubbo, which are in a rural area about 330km north west of Sydney.

The government is putting renewable energy capacity onto it through competitive tenders and received 27GW worth of expressions of interest (EOI) in 2020, well above its planned capacity. It has been a similar story for other REZ calls for prospective bidders in NSW, most recently the Illawarra REZ in August 2022.

The filing of its EIS is a critical step in the cycle of approvals and “demonstrates our commitment to ensuring NSW households, businesses and industry can access clean, affordable and reliable energy as coal-fired power stations retire,” NSW’s minister for energy Penny Sharpe said.

The EIS is on public exhibition for a month, through EnergyCo, the state-run energy corporation tasked with delivering the REZ.

The government kicked off the Central-West Orana project in earnest last November when it officially declared the REZ. Its planned grid export capacity will be an initial 3GW when it goes online by the middle of this decade.

EnergyCo said in August that the government plans beef up the network further to accommodate 4.5GW of export by 2030. The government is exploring options for the REZ to eventually reach 6GW export from mostly wind and solar PV resource by 2038.

Minister Diane Sharpe also noted in a statement made 28 September that it is planning to also include 2GW of long-duration energy storage.  

To read the full version of this story, visit Energy-Storage.news.

Read Next

October 15, 2025
The average price of a solar PPA signed in North America increased 4% between the second and third quarters of 2025, according to LevelTen.
October 15, 2025
The Australian government has approved the 141MW Forbes Solar Farm Project in New South Wales in just 19 days, marking one of the fastest environmental approvals on record in the country.
October 15, 2025
Australia has opened registrations for Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) Tender 7, which targets 5GW of renewable energy generation capacity across the National Electricity Market (NEM).
October 13, 2025
ANSI has approved a new traceability standard proposed by the SEIA to improve transparency of the solar and storage supply chain.
October 10, 2025
Australia's renewable energy sector recorded its slowest month of the year for additions in September, with 5.8GW of new projects added to development pipelines, according to data from Rystad Energy.
October 9, 2025
The Australian government has announced the results of the fourth Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) tender, with 6.6GW of renewables awarded long-term contracts.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK