The Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, Australia, has upheld an appeal regarding Hydrostor’s 1.6GWh advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) project.
Hydrostor’s Silver City Energy Storage System in New South Wales (NSW) is a 200MW/1,600MWh (8-hour duration) facility based on the Canadian company’s proprietary A-CAES technology, which Hydrostor claims is more efficient and environmentally-friendly than conventional compressed air storage.
Late last month (25 March), the court, which hears environmental, development, building and planning disputes, ruled to uphold the appeal by Outback Astronomy, a local tourism operator on the potential light and noise impacts of Silver City.
The project’s development has not been stopped, but the Land and Environment Court placed amended consent conditions that require Hydrostor to consult with Outback Astronomy through every major stage and monitor noise and light at the tourism company’s property during construction.
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Data must be reported directly to Outback Australia, notify the complainant of high-impact activities in advance, design and operate lighting to Australian standards and demonstrate compliance over the lifetime of the project. Outback Astronomy’s owners, Travis and Linda Nadge, who brought the appeal, said their stargazing business is “uniquely dependent on natural darkness and quiet” in a blog post after the ruling.
See the full Land and Environment Court ruling. Hat-tip to regional news outlet Back Country Bulletin’s reporting this week for drawing this story to our attention.
Silver City recognised as state significant development for NSW
Silver City will be built at an existing mining site in the historic Broken Hill mining region and has been recognised by the NSW government as a state significant project.
It also received AU$45 million funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) toward its total AU$652.26 million expected cost as a demonstration of A-CAES as an emissions-free storage technology without the same land and topography constraints as pumped hydro.
Hydrostor, which is also developing a 4GWh A-CAES project in California, US, and another of similar scale in Ontario, Canada, received development approval for Silver City in February 2025.
It also has a Network Service Agreement in place for the NSW facility with transmission operator Transgrid and a Long-Term Service Agreement (LTSA) with AEMO Services.
The Canadian company secured a US$200 million investment commitment from investors, including Goldman Sachs Alternatives, in early 2025, following Goldman Sachs previously making a US$250 million pledge to invest in Hydrostor in 2022. It also netted an additional US$55 million in funding towards Silver City from Export Development Canada (EDC) in September 2025.
