The Australian government has selected 19 wind, solar and hybrid projects as part of this first national tender process, which opened in May.
The projects included ACEN Australia’s 936MW Valley of the Winds scheme in New South Wales and two Neoen onshore wind farms with a combined capacity of 900MW.
Three Lightsource BP projects were also successful including its 700MW Sandy Creek Solar Farm and a 300MW solar and 560MWh BESS site in Victoria.
The Capacity Investment Scheme aims to ensure enough new affordable and reliable electricity will be brought into the grid to meet demand between now and 2030.
Successful projects were chosen from 84 bids proposing to deliver about four and a half times more capacity than what was tendered for, demonstrating that the pipeline of investors wanting to construct and operate cheap, clean, reliable renewable projects in Australia is currently strong.
These projects are expected to be operation by 2028.
Bids are now coming in for the third and fourth tender rounds of the capacity investment scheme which opened last month. Together they will deliver more than one and a half times more energy than the first tender.
Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, said: “Bids were rigorously assessed through a fully independent third party, AEMO Services Limited, based on the project’s likelihood of lowering wholesale energy market prices, how well it helps deliver system reliability, and proposed benefits to local communities and First Nations Australians, including through using locally sourced project materials and supplies, and job creation.“The Albanese Government expects economic and social benefits for local and First Nations communities are a core part of the transition to renewables.
“There is a broad range of social licence commitments made in this first round of tenders, including AUS$660m in shared community benefits, AUS$280m in First Nations benefits, over AUS$14bn in expenditure on local businesses, AUS$60m in local employment and for NSW projects, the use of more than AUS$200m of locally milled steel.”