Australia's NSW launches renewable energy auction

New South Wales energy minister Matt Kean today announced the official launch of the state’s renewable energy and storage policy that comes with the opening of the first in a series of bi-annual tenders over a period of 10 years.

The Aussie state has set an objective to build 12 GW of renewable energy capacity and 2 GW of long-duration storage like pumped hydro by 2030. According to the minister, this is the biggest renewable energy policy in Australia’s history. It is tied to the creation of five massive Renewable Energy Zones across the state.

The idea behind the state’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap and the newly-launched tender is to replace the generation capacity from four out of five of NSW’s coal-fired power plants with modern electricity infrastructure. The introduction of this roadmap is estimated to result in savings of around AUD 130 (USD 83.9/EUR 85.9) a year on average on the typical household electricity bill and AUD 430 a year on the average small business electricity bill between 2023 and 2040.

Interested parties can register for the competitive bidding process until October 28, 2022, which is when project bids close.

“Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has put enormous pressure on power prices and shows why we need to fast track our plans to replace ageing power stations and reduce our reliance on generation that relies on volatile international commodity prices,” minister Kean commented.

(AUD 1 = USD 0.645/EUR 0.661)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!