New South Wales

Construction of the 350 MW Blind Creek solar farm and large-scale battery energy storage project planned for southeast New South Wales is set to begin next year with renewables developer Octopus Australia announcing the state government has now granted planning approval.

A 4 MW solar farm to be constructed at Kemps Creek in Western Sydney will be used to power a high-tech water recycling facility that will provide a water system to approximately 400,000 homes and businesses in the growth area.

Queensland-based investment platform Clean Energy Transfer Fund intends to circumvent lengthy lead times and major capital outlays associated with grid-scale renewables projects by deploying hundreds of sub 5 MW energy storage units throughout Australia to create coordinated battery ‘hives’ of up to 200 MWh each.

A grid-connected community battery has gone live in Sydney’s western suburbs with New South Wales electricity distributor Endeavour Energy trialling the technology as a means to maximise the benefits of rooftop solar generation and more efficiently manage supply and demand in the network.

Transgrid, Australia’s major grid operator, plans to soon launch a competitive process to procure grid support services from third-party battery operators as it looks beyond traditional network infrastructure to help maintain the reliability of electricity supply in two growth regions in New South Wales.

Construction of Australia’s largest electricity transmission project continues to roll on with network operator ElectraNet announcing it has achieved more than 70% completion of the South Australian component of the 900-kilometre EnergyConnect project that will link power grids across three states.

A team of engineers at the University of New South Wales say they have developed a new, more effective method for recycling end-of-life solar panels that allows them to quickly and efficiently separate 99% of PV cell component materials.

The New South Wales government has provided planning approvals for two new grid-scale batteries that will deliver a combined 540 MWh of energy storage capacity to support the state’s rapidly changing energy market.

The New South Wales Hunter region, for decades a hub for coal and steel industries, has been tapped to play a major role in Australia’s decarbonised energy future with the federal government announcing it will invest $70 million (USD 47.58 million) to further the development of a green hydrogen manufacturing hub in the region.

A coroner’s report is to be prepared following the death of a 41-year-old man following a “workplace accident” at the Wellington North Solar Farm being constructed near Dubbo in western New South Wales.