Six firming capacity projects totalling 1,075 MW in New South Wales have been selected through the Aussie government’s Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), designed to support new renewable dispatchable capacity along the country’s net-zero journey.
Winning projects in the oversubscribed tender, which had a 930-MW target, represent a combined energy infrastructure investment of AUD 1.8 billion (USD 1.18bn/EUR 1.08bn), the federal government announced on Wednesday. All of them should become operational by December 2025.
“4 GW of dispatchable power left the grid over the past decade with only 1 GW to replace it – announcements like today’s are the result of governments getting on with the job of delivering a cleaner cheaper grid for NSW,” said Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen.
The selected projects will provide grid capacity equal to 8% of the total 2022/2023 summer peak demand in New South Wales, the government estimates. Their construction is expected to open around 400 jobs.
Australia unveiled the CIS initiative in December last year, initially covering only the states of Victoria and South Australia. New South Wales was later included in the tender programme and its targeted capacity increased from the original 380 MW this summer.
(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.654/EUR 0.599)
Source: renewablesnow
