The Middlebrook Solar Farm and battery energy storage project, being developed by French company TotalEnergies in northeast New South Wales (NSW), has been cleared by the federal government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The 320 MW solar farm and 320 MW / 780 MWh battery energy storage system, proposed for a 515-hectare site near Tamworth, was last month referred to the EPBC but the regulator has now ruled that its approval is not required.
The EPBC ruling comes after the project received the tick of approval from NSW’s Independent Planning Commission (IPC) in November.
The Middlebrook project include a 320 MW solar farm and 320 MW / 780 MWh battery energy storage system. Once completed, it will connect to the National Electricity Market (NEM) via the existing Transgrid 330 kV transmission line that traverses the project site and will have the capacity to generate enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of about 153,000 homes.
TotalEnergies has previously signalled that construction of the project would start later this year, with commissioning anticipated in 2027.
The Middlebrook project is part of TotalEnergies’ growing Australian portfolio that includes the 200 MW Kiamal Solar Farm in Victoria, which was commissioned in 2021.
Other projects include 300 MWh of battery storage proposed for the Kiamil site, a 200 MW / 420 MWh battery at Blackwater in Queensland, and it has teamed with Gentari to jointly develop the 100 MW Pleasant Hills solar project in that state’s southwest.
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