Someva Renewables and AGL Energy have received the federal greenlight to develop a 2,000MWh wind-plus-storage project in the central Riverina region of New South Wales (NSW), Australia.
The project will feature 1,300MW of wind power generation from 247 turbines and a 500MW, 4-hour duration (2,000MWh) battery energy storage system (BESS).
It has received federal approval under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, which evaluates potential impacts on protected matters, including threatened species, ecological communities and water resources.
Generator-retailer (‘gentailer’) AGL has partnered with renewable energy developer Someva Renewables for the Pottinger Wind Farm. Their joint venture (JV) was announced in March 2024.
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The NSW government fast-tracked the project by granting it state significant development (SSD) status. It was granted state approval from the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) in late July 2025.
The project’s expected capital investment value is approximately AU$2 billion (US$1.29 billion). It is expected to create around 900 construction jobs and up to 40 operational jobs, with a construction period estimated to take around 55 months.
Pottinger Wind Farm will connect to a new 900km transmission line being built between the nearby NSW city of Wagga Wagga and substations in the neighbouring states of Victoria and South Australia.
The wind-plus-storage project will also be situated within the state-designated South West Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). Hosting multiple gigawatts per site of renewable energy and storage across a mix of technologies that leverage existing and new transmission infrastructure buildout, REZ developments across Australia aim to replace the centralised role of thermal generation from fossil fuels.
Someva Renewables said the project is pending a final investment decision (FID), and the initial phase of construction is planned to begin in late 2026. This phase would see approximately 831MW of capacity built in line with the Access Right issued by EnergyCo for the South West REZ.
The South West REZ is one of five planned for NSW. The first tender for its access rights was oversubscribed, with over 15GW of projects bidding versus an indicative target of 3.98GW. AEMO Services, which is overseeing tender processes, said in September that there was a high level of interest from hybrid projects pairing energy storage with either wind or solar PV.
Akaysha Energy reaches the halfway point on 1.6GWh+ BESS
Elsewhere in Australia, BlackRock-backed developer Akaysha Energy has officially reached the halfway point in the construction of the 1,660MWh Orana BESS, also in NSW.
The developer, which last month switched on Waratah Super Battery, the “world’s most powerful battery storage system,” confirmed on LinkedIn that the 224th Tesla Megapack had been installed at the site.
Commercial operations at the Orana BESS are expected to commence in 2026, ahead of NSW’s planned opening of the Central-West Orana REZ in 2028. Earlier this year, EnergyCo granted Access Rights for 7.15GW of renewables and energy storage to connect to the REZ.
The developer also recently added the 205MW/410MWh 2-hour duration Brendale BESS in Queensland to AEMO’s Market Management System.
Much like the Orana BESS, the Brendale battery storage site incorporates Tesla Megapack technology, marking a shift away from the Powin battery technology that had been used in the Waratah Super Battery and the 300MWh Ulinda BESS in NSW.
Earlier this year, Powin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after admitting it struggled to compete with Chinese OEMs’ integrated BESS offerings. In an exclusive interview with ESN Premium last month, Nick Carter, CEO of Akaysha Energy, said that this was “not optimal”, but the situation had gone “incredibly smoothly” so far.
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