New 1.5 gigawatt wind project, backed by local farmers and with big battery in tow, hits EPBC queue

One of the best examples of the truly extraordinary size of wind projects being proposed in 2025 might be Meering West, a proposal of gigawatt proportions.

The 1,500 megawatt (MW) project – put forward by developer Virya Energy – has just hit the EPBC assessment queue, with a 500 MW, 1000 megawatt hour (MWh) battery in tow. 

And yet this project, destined to hug the town of Kerang in Victoria’s north, is not even close to the largest onshore wind project proposed for Australia.

Including the epic proposals for industrial-scale wind in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, there are 24 proposals bigger than Meering West and four others the same size (although only one, Origin Energy’s Yanco Delta, has planning approval), according to RenewMap. 

Until 2019, the 420 megawatt (MW) Macarthur wind farm was the largest in Australia. 

Today, there are still only four bigger that are in operation: in Victoria, the 756 MW Golden Plains stage 1 and the 529 MW Stockyard Hill, and in Queensland the 453 MW Coopers Gap and the recently opened 450 MW Clarke Creek stage 1.

Farmers chose their favourite developer

The city-scale Meering West is already having to distinguish itself from the controversial VNI West transmission line proposal. 

But its origin story may give it an easier ride through the planning process.

Development started in 2021 when 25 cropping farmers, from 15 different families, ran a tender process to select a renewable energy developer to progress a wind farm on their land, the EPBC application says. 

Virya Energy was the winner. As a result of the landowner-led nature of the project, the design was co-designed to minimise the impact on farming practices on the 20,100 hectare area, it says.

The project itself is looking to install 164 turbines with a maximum tip height of 300m.

It’s a size even taller than the controversial Kentbruck Energy Park turbines proposed for west of Portland, which is unnerving locals unused to projects of that size in the area. 

Virya says it’s fielded mainly positive and neutral opinions so far, with some negative from near neighbours. 

It’s pulling out all of the now-usual financial stops to keep the community on side. 

People living between 2- 2.5km of a turbine will receive $8000 a year, a sum that reduces by $1000 for every 500m -out to a distance of 6km from a turbine.

People living within 6km and 10km will be offered a $50 monthly discount off their electricity bill, and it’s pitching a $2.1 million annual community benefits scheme to the Gannawarra and Loddon Shire.

Where it may struggle is with the EPBC process, which is notorious for adding time to wind projects in particular given their large footprints – although recent reforms may change this.

Virya Energy has identified a range of threatened birds and plant communities the project will affect.

These include the southern whiteface, brown treecreper, both the latham’s and Japanese snipe, white throated needletail, diamond firetail and both the south-eastern hooded and hooded robins. 

It will also affect buloke woodlands and plains mallee box woodlands. 

A popular hub

Kerang, once inside the fearfully named “rhombus of regret” that denoted a swathe of land in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria where massive curtailment due to the weak local grid was inevitable, is now a popular hub for renewable projects of all kinds.  

The town is at the junction of two 220 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines, one coming from the west and one feeding Melbourne in the south. It’s also on the proposed 500 kV VNI West line.

That has made the area a hotbed of renewable energy proposals, including seven wind proposals, six solar projects and three operating solar farms, and 10 batteries, one of which is the second in Australia contracted to provide grid-stabilising services using inverters.

If you wish to support independent media, and accurate information, please consider making a one off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Renew Economy. Please click here. Your support is invaluable.