Australian BESS face new financing reality as spreads halve to AU$100/MWh and lenders demand 50-70% contracting amid 15GW deployment surge.

Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has announced its largest-ever investment commitment, with AU$3.8 billion (US$2.5 billion) allocated to support the Marinus Link interconnector connecting the states of Tasmania and Victoria.

“We need some form of policy or expansion of the CIS for LDES,” Nick Hawke, director of Australia’s CEFC, tells ESN Premium.

Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has announced it has invested a record AU$4.7 billion (US$3.09 billion) in large-scale renewables, energy storage, and transmission projects during the 12-month period ending 30 June 2025.

On day one of the Energy Storage Summit Australia 2025, the audience heard that although 2 to 4-hour duration battery energy storage systems (BESS) are favourable, longer durations are starting to challenge this.

“BESS project financing is rapidly evolving,” says Niall Brady of Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

The Australian government has approved the development of HumeLink, an almost AU$5 billion (US$3.1 billion) energy transmission project that will unlock the 350GWh Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) expansion.

Spanish sustainable energy developer X-Elio is expanding a solar PV plant in Queensland, Australia, with the addition of battery storage.

New South Wales has submitted an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for its Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).

A “farmer-led” utility-scale solar PV and battery storage agrivoltaics project in New South Wales, Australia, has been granted development consent.