Huge solar farm and battery project to go ahead after securing federal green tick

The federal government has signed off on the 600 megawatt (MW) Birriwa solar farm less than a month after it joined the queue for environmental assessment, giving developer Acen Australia a clear run to start construction. 

Acen Australia will build the solar farm alongside a battery energy storage system (BESS) of up to 600 MW, with two hours of storage capacity, about 20km southeast of Dunedoo in New South Wales (NSW).

The agrivoltaics project will see the site continue to function as sheep grazing land as well as a solar plant.

The project had a number of hurdles to clear to get to this point. It was approved earlier this year by the state’s planning department, but because it attracted more than 80 written objections from neighbours – and others who lived more than 100 km away – it was automatically referred to the NSW Independent Planning Commission.

The IPC – which conducted a tour of the site, hosted hearings and received 65 written submissions from the community – granted consent to the project in mid-August, subject to conditions including road restrictions, the preparation of soil and water management plans, and vegetation for visual screening.

In a statement published on Monday, federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek said the project, which is in the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, has met the requirements of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

“Projects need to be placed in the right areas and designed so that their environmental impacts are minimised – as is the case with this project,” Plibersek said.

“I’ve ticked off more than 55 renewable energy projects in two years – enough to power almost 7 million homes.”

The Birriwa project will support around 500 direct jobs in construction and 20 ongoing jobs. Acen says it expects to start construction in late 2026 or early 2027, with commissioning around 2029, with these dates being the kind of timeframes it expects that the REZ infrastructure build out to run to.

The Birriwa project will connect to the Merotherie Energy Hub, one of the two energy hubs the 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy generation in the REZ will connect into, before being farmed out into the grid. 

Acen, which is also building the 420 MW Stubbo solar project near Mudgee to the south, is one of the biggest renewable and storage developers in the country.

It plans to add a battery to that Stubbo project and is also considering adding battery back-up at its Naragamba, Deeargee and Axedale solar projects.

Last month it added another solar-battery project into the NSW planning pipeline, in this case a 100 megawatt (MW) solar facility and an 80 MW battery to be built near Cooma at the gateway to the Snowy Mountains. It is also seeking to develop the contested Robbins Island Jim Plains wind projects in Tasmania.