Korea industrial giant plans solar and two battery projects in south west NSW

South Korea energy giant Samsung has unveiled new plans to build a large solar farm and two big battery projects near Hay, with the intention of connecting to the new transmission link between the NSW and South Australia grids.

The Samsung Romani project would feature a 250 megawatt (MW) solar farm accompanied by a 150 MW, 600 MWh battery, with a separate standalone 200 MW/800 MWh battery at the same location.

The project is one of many that will be competing for access to the grid along Project Energy Connect, the new transmission link that is in testing mode between South Australia and Buronga, but is yet to be complete for the extension to Wagga Wagga.

The new transmission line will be the backbone for the new South West Renewable Energy Zone, which has been tendering for access right to the grid. These, however, are capped at 4 GW, just a fraction of the capacity that has potential to be developed in the region.

It is not known if Samsung C&T Renewables has secured access rights for Romani – although the fact that it is a solar and battery project in a region dominated by gigawatt scale wind projects may help.

It has just filed an application under the federal government’s EPBC Act. Renew Economy reported last week that the winners and losers of the access rights tender have been advised, pending finalisation by the state government authority, but have not been publicly released.

The application, filed in December, reveals that negotiations with landowners and near neighbours have been in train since early 2022, and are continuing with other stakeholders, including First Nations groups.

The project is proposed for largely “degraded” lands mostly used for cattle grazing. An earlier scoping report reveals a smaller battery proposal, indicating that the battery component has been significantly lifted over the last 12 months.

Samsung is relatively new to the Australian renewable energy landscape, entering the market in 2022. It says it has been working on four solar farm and battery projects in Queensland, and at least five in NSW, and has a total pipeline of 1.5 GW of projects.

Its website says it hopes to gain approval for the project in 2025, begin construction in 2026 and be operating by 2028.