New South Wales

Seven New South Wales local councils have united to secure a long-term electricity purchasing agreement utilising the 115 MW Metz Solar Farm which will deliver enough renewable energy to allow the participating councils’ facilities and assets to transition to 100% renewables in a staged approach from January 2023.

Dutch company Photon Energy Group has acquired its first utility scale solar and battery project, opting for a venture 500 kilometres northwest of Sydney which it says will become a “prototype” for its European portfolio.

A trio of New South Wales councils have signed a renewable energy supply deal with energy retailer Flow Power that will underpin the development at least two new solar projects totalling more than 8 MW of PV in the state’s South Coast region.

After a productive pilot project that saw solar, batteries and VPP technology installed at 60 public schools in New South Wales, the state government is now seeking proposals to finance, deliver and operate such renewable energy solutions across 2,200 public schools.

The New South Wales government has received bids for more than 5.5 GW of wind and solar projects, along with more than 2.5 GW of long-duration storage projects, in response to its first tender to secure renewable projects to transform its coal-reliant energy system.

At least 600 disability and community housing residents in Sydney are set to receive a lifeline amidst the cost of living crisis in the shape of fully funded solar systems. The residential solar PPA model of the Community Solar Program pilot should see benefits for residents, developers and investors.

Distributed energy specialist CleanPeak Energy will install a combined 5.4 MW of PV systems atop biscuit manufacturer Arnott’s Group’s two biggest Australian production facilities. The deal will also deliver an energy service agreement for the front-of-meter power at the company’s Huntingwood site in western Sydney as it looks to transition to 100% renewable electricity across its operations.

Construction has begun on a 50 MW/50 MWh battery near the outback city of Broken Hill which will be equipped with advanced inverter technology designed to improve system strength in regional New South Wales and support increased levels of renewable energy generation in the area.

The Northern Beaches Council in Sydney is seeking expressions of interest from organisations able to set and and run a group Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), for its local businesses. The aim is to aggregate local businesses to collectively scale up their PPA buying power and cut time, complexity and associated costs.

Developer Energy Estate has signed a deal with Abergeldie Complex Infrastructure, which has designed vertical manmade caverns for hydrogen storage. Energy Estate co-founder Simon Currie says the partnership is about shoring up projects like its proposed 1.6 GW Hunter Hydrogen Network.