Huge NSW wind project locks in offtake deal with Snowy Hydro

Construction of a 414MW wind farm in central western New South Wales will go ahead later this year after the huge project secured an offtake deal with federal government-owned gen-tailer, Snowy Hydro.

The deal between project developer CWP Renewables and Snowy Hydro will see Snowy purchase 200MW of the output of the Uungula wind farm and renewable energy certificates for a 15-year term.

The massive project, which has secured development approval, is now gearing up for construction 14km east of Wellington, in the New South Wales central-west Renewable Energy Zone.

“At 414 megawatts, Uungula will be our largest wind farm to date and provide enough clean electricity to power more than 200,000 homes,” said CWP Renewables CEO Jason Willoughby on Tuesday.

“It’s great to have Snowy Hydro on-board as a foundation offtaker for the project, which in turn helps us continue to develop our pipeline of renewable projects.”

For Snowy Hydro, the deal marks its twelfth power purchase agreement, and second with CWP Renewables, following an offtake deal for power from its Bango Wind Farm, north of Yass.

Snowy Hydro CEO Paul Broad says the new deal is set to kick off in 2026 after construction of Uungula is completed, and will take the total amount of energy that Snowy purchases from renewables projects to 4.1 terawatt-hours a year.

“Renewables are the future and by combining our contracted wind and solar projects with our on-demand hydro assets we can provide ‘firm’, secure, low-emissions energy to the market, while keeping the lights on,” Broad said.

“This partnership is another example of Snowy Hydro securing greater investment in renewables across Australia, which is a win-win for everyone.”

CWP Renewables is a seasoned player in the Australian wind energy market, with projects including Sapphire and Boco Rock in its operation portfolio, and the Crudine Ridge and Bango wind farms under construction.

All up on the National Electricity Market CWP Renewables currently operates and owns 650MW of renewable energy assets, and has another 5GW of wind, storage and firming projects in its near-medium term development pipeline.

The group’s global division is one of a consortium of developers – which now includes oil giant BP –  behind the truly massive Asia Renewable Energy Hub, which proposes to build up to 15,000MW of new wind and solar power in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and has expanded its long term plans to 26,000MW.

See also RenewEconomy’s Large Scale Wind Farm Map of Australia