New South Wales

Australian developers Energy Estate and MirusWind have proposed a massive renewable energy hub in New South Wales. The project will combine wind and solar energy generation with pumped hydro storage and other storage options to provide up to 4 GW of new clean generation.

German inverter supplier SMA has continued to build on its very strong position in the Australian large scale solar market segment, being selected to supply what will be the largest PV power plant in the country. The Limondale Solar Farm in NSW will 57 SMA MPVS systems and two SMA Power Plant Controllers.

The Newcastle City Council has begun construction on a 5 MW Summerhill solar farm located on a disused landfill that was once part of a coal mine.

The University of Technology of Sydney (UTS) will cover the equivalent of half of its annual electricity needs with solar power from the 32 MW Walgett Solar Farm in north-west NSW. The power purchase agreement will allow the $40 million solar project to break ground.

The New South Wales government is set to accelerate $2.5 billion worth of transmission projects in order to address grid bottlenecks and unlock low-cost, low-emission generation in new areas of the state. As part of its grid transformation plan, NSW will boost connections with its neighboring states and bring forward the Snowy Hydro scheme.

After taking a 90.1% stake in one of Australia’s largest solar PV projects – the 255 MWp Sunraysia Solar Farm last month, U.K.-based infrastructure investor John Laing has closed its second solar project in Australia – the 174.9 MWp Finley Solar Farm in New South Wales.

The NSW Department of Planning has given the green light the 55 MW Vales Point solar project, one of the first large scale solar power plant in Australia to operate in conjunction with a coal-fired power station.

The New South Wales government has announced plans to install up to 900 batteries with a total capacity of 13 MW on hospital and schools that already have rooftop solar systems.

The 349 MWp Limondale Solar Park located near Balranald, New South Wales, will feature solar modules produced by U.S.-based PV maker SunPower.

Origin Energy has won federal government funding for a feasibility assessment on plans to double the capacity of its Shoalhaven pumped hydro scheme in New South Wales and thus allow for greater storage of renewable energy.