7.15GW of renewable energy and energy storage projects have been granted access rights to connect to Australia’s first renewable energy zone (REZ) in Central-West Orana, New South Wales.
In a statement released this morning (8 May), the state-owned Energy Corporation of New South Wales (EnergyCo) announced that 10 renewable energy projects have been granted the green light to connect to the REZ. This will enable the sites to connect to the incoming transmission line running through the zone.
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The projects are expected to be delivered by 2031 and will have an average operational lifespan of 30 years. These sites will generate 15,000GWh of energy per year.
Access rights have been granted for a 2.2GW battery energy storage system (BESS). Wind sites have been granted 2,951MW for variable energy generation, while utility-scale solar PV has been awarded 2,500MW.
As seen in the image above, all successful BESS assets will be co-located with variable renewable energy generation sites, and no standalone BESS have been awarded access rights.
The successful BESS projects include the 600MW/1,200MWh Birriwa BESS being developed by Acen Australia, Lightsource bp’s 700MW Sandy Creek BESS, which will have a minimum 1,400MWh of energy storage, Pacific Partnerships’ 400MW/1,600MWh Cobbora BESS and Potentia Energy’s 500MW/1,000MWh Tallawang Solar Hybrid site.
Penny Sharpe, the New South Wales minister for Climate Change and Energy, said the access rights are a “major step forward” for the state’s energy transformation.
“These deals will secure billions of dollars of private investment in renewable energy and deliver enough electricity to power 2.7 million New South Wales homes annually. By unlocking new renewable energy capacity and enhancing battery energy storage, we are making our power grid more reliable and putting downward pressure on bills,” Sharpe added.
The Central-West Orana REZ will be built on roughly 20,000km2 near Dunedoo, Mudgee, and Dubbo, a rural area about 330km northwest of Sydney. It will potentially unlock an estimated AUS$20 billion (US$12.89 billion) in private investment in solar PV, wind, and energy storage.
Central-West Orana REZ reaps the benefits of increased network capacity
Readers of Energy-Storage.news might be aware that EnergyCo increased the size of the Central-West Orana REZ to enable 7.7GW of renewable energy generation and energy storage projects to connect to it.
The increase was enabled by raising the REZ’s intended network capacity from 3GW to 6GW. This was achieved following a headroom assessment that started in early August 2024.
At the time, EnergyCo said the network capacity of the Central-West Orana West REZ will initially operate at 4.5GW. This network capacity enables up to 7.7GW of solar PV, wind and BESS projects to inject power into the grid, as they will be doing so at different times of the day and not all exporting energy simultaneously.
This increase in size appears to have been capitalised on by the successful applicants. It will provide additional support in helping the state achieve its decarbonisation target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
3.56GW of renewables and energy storage granted access rights for South West REZ
In late April, EnergoCo announced it had awarded access rights for 3.56GW of renewable energy and energy storage sites for the smaller South West REZ in New South Wales.
Following a competitive tender process led by AEMO Services, EnergyCo confirmed that Origin Energy, Spark Renewables, Someva Pty, AGL Energy and BayWa r.e. have secured access to the REZ.
The successful projects are dominated mainly by wind generation, with each of the four projects incorporating the technology into its designs. Only one site has solar PV generation, whilst battery energy storage will be stationed at two of the sites.
This includes Spark Renewables’ Dinawan Energy Hub, which will have a capacity of 1,007MW and be spread across solar, wind, and battery energy storage.
The other project is Someva’s Pottinger Energy Park, which is being developed with AGL Energy. 832.1MW of capacity had been awarded, which will be spread across wind generation and a co-located BESS.
