French energy major TotalEnergies has submitted plans for its 320MW Middlebrook solar-plus-storage project in Tamworth, in northeast New South Wales, Australia, to the federal government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
If approved, the state-significant development, located 22km south of Tamworth, will feature a 320MW/780MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) co-located on the project’s site.
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The project’s solar PV element will include 750,000 solar PV modules. These will generate green electricity that will be connected to the National Electricity Market (NEM) via an on-site substation and an existing 330kV transmission line owned by Transgrid.
Planning documents for the project indicate that the project represents an investment of around AU$856 million (US$562 million) and will generate up to 400 construction jobs and 15 operational jobs.
The pre-construction phase of the project is anticipated to last around six months, with construction to start shortly after, which will take approximately 18-24 months. The operational lifespan of the site will be 30 years.
It is also worth noting that the site location is around 27km west of the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). This REZ aims to deliver 8GW of additional network capacity, supporting renewable energy generation technologies, such as solar and energy storage. A scoping report was lodged last July and it is expected to attract over AU$24 billion in private investment by 2034.
The project received approval from the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission (IPC) on 11 November 2024.
More than 50 public objections were received for TotalEnergies’ project, and to satisfy some of these, the IPC has implemented conditions to which the owner will have to adhere.
Most of these conditions are visual cues, such as ensuring vegetation screening of the BESS and substation and that landowners can request vegetation screening on properties within 3km of the project.
TotalEnergies must also ensure there is a suitable decommission and rehabilitation plan in place for the project.
Solar PV in the EPBC Act
The EPBC queue, administered by the federal government, aims to protect nationally threatened species and ecological communities. Approval must be received before a project can be developed.
Several solar-plus-storage projects have been submitted to the EPBC queue in recent months, including Edify Energy’s 250MW project in Victoria and a 600MW solar-plus-storage site being pursued by ACEN Australia.
One of the latest solar PV projects to have been submitted to the act is Spanish solar developer X-Elio’s 720MW North Burnett Renewable Energy Hub in Queensland. The project features a 4-hour duration 720MW/2,880MWh BESS co-located with the solar PV power plant.
Should X-Elio secure the necessary approvals for the project, the developer expects construction to last around 36 months. The project is expected to have an operational life of 30 years. At the end of its life, the power plant will either be decommissioned or repowered with new solar equipment.
In December 2024, the Australian trade association Clean Energy Investor Group scrutinised the EPBC Act, arguing that decision-making periods had doubled from 2021 to 2023.
According to the group representing Australian and global renewable energy investors, the average decision-making period for controlled actions requiring comprehensive environmental assessments increased from 62 days in 2021 to 136 days in 2023.
WGEH submits 70GW megaproject to EPBC Act
Readers of PV Tech will likely be aware of Western Australia’s Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH), a 70GW solar PV and wind project, a proposal that was recently submitted to the EPBC Act.
The AU$100 billion project is being pursued by developer WGEH. The developer inked a collaboration agreement last September with the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and submitted the project to Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in November 2024.
The WGEH project was previously slated to have a generating capacity of 50GW; however, this has increased to 70GW. Around 3,000 wind turbines and up to 35 solar PV power plants will be located across the proposed site, which will also house data centres. The developer said around 60 million solar PV modules will be used for the project.
It will be situated on Western Australian Mining Native Title-determined land in the Shire of Dundas, in the far southeast of the state. Currently, the proposed project will cover 2,268,015 hectares of land, an area larger than Wales in the UK.
