Neoen starts work on its ‘most ambitious project’

French renewables developer Neoen has started early works on its Goyder Renewables Zone, just north of Adelaide in South Australia. When completed, the project is likely to be the country’s largest wind, solar and battery storage project.

January 18, 2022 Bella Peacock

Goyder is about a two-hour drive north of South Australia's capital, Adelaide.

Image: Neoen

A major player in Australia’s clean energy landscape, Neoen on Monday announced it had given the go ahead to the first stage of its Goyder Renewables Zone, a project which will has been granted development approval for a total of 1200 MW of wind generation, 600 MW of solar generation and 900 MW of battery storage capacity, making it South Australia’s largest renewable project.

Neoen’s chairman and CEO, Xavier Barbaro, said the company is thrilled to break ground at Goyder, describing it as the most ambitious project in Neoen’s portfolio. “Boosted by now having 5.4 GW of assets in operation or under construction, we are more confident than ever in our ability to achieve our target of 10 GW in 2025,” Barbaro added.

Neoen is still a while off realising the full scale of its $3 billion Goyder Renewables Zone vision though, having only just commenced construction on the initial 412 MW Goyder South Stage 1 wind farm. The stage 1 wind farm is set to be completed by 2024 and will connect to the Robertstown substation.

The sizeable future stages of the project will only be “unlocked” with the new 800 MW transmission interconnector linking South Australia with New South Wales, Project EnergyConnect, which is slated for commissioning in 2023 and will hopefully be completed by 2025.

Neoen’s Victorian big battery in Geelong.
Neoen

The transmission interconnector will allow South Australia become a serious renewable energy exporter, with the state likely to be running on 100% renewables long before its target of 2030. (In December, the state ran for a week on renewables which were significantly curtailed, indicating the region already has surplus clean energy with nowhere to go).

The Australian Capital Territory’s (ACT) government has signed a contract with Neoen to source electricity from the Goyder wind farm, allowing Canberra’s electricity supply will continue to be sourced from 100% renewable electricity in the coming years. “This will allow us to accommodate a growing population, support renewable energy initiatives such as electric vehicles and transition our economy off fossil gas,” ACT Minister for Sustainability, Shane Rattenbury, said.

“We are delighted to start building the first stage of our Goyder Renewables Zone, Neoen’s most competitive giga-project,” Neoen Australia’s Managing Director, Louis de Sambucy, said. “We look forward to building on this strong foundation, adding solar and batteries into the future to deliver firm 24/7 renewable energy.”

Neoen is developing the biggest pipeline of utility-scale batteries in Australia by a long shot. The company officially switched on its 300 MW / 450 MWh Victorian big battery in Geelong in December 2021, and on the very same day announced plans for 300MW and 800MWh battery in Blyth, north of Adelaide.

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