Spark unveils new plans for giga-scale wind farm and big battery

Plans have emerged for a massive wind farm and big battery to be built in the highly sought-after South-West Renewable Energy Zone in New South Wales by the solar and wind development arm of local network company, Spark Infrastructure.

Spark Renewables says it plans to develop the up to 1GW Mallee wind farm in the Wentworth Shire, 16km north-east of Buronga, alongside a containerised battery energy storage system.

The project, which Spark says will be classified as State Significant, will – subject to a rigorous planning and assessment process – connect to the grid via the major upgrades promised through Project EnergyConnect.

It is separate to the Dinawan Energy Hub – a massive 2.5GW hyrbid wind, solar and battery storage project – also planned for the South-West REZ.

Spark Renewables’ Anthony Marriner says the proposed site has been chosen for its strong wind resource, good location within the REZ, and the “very low density” of housing.

“Additionally, the proposed site features a flat terrain, meaning that complex earthworks would be avoided during construction, and the site can continue to be used for grazing and cropping purposes, with turbines taking up less than two percent of the proposed project site.”

The first order of business for now, however, is community engagement, with a local drop-in session to be held in the last week of August in Buronga.

Marriner says the huge project is expected to bring significant benefits to the local community and region in the form of jobs and investment, as well as funding for local community initiatives through a community fund to be established for the life of the project.

“We strongly encourage local community members to participate in community consultation where they can, and to ask questions and provide feedback to our team,” said Marriner.

The NSW South-West REZ has generated enormous interest from aspiring developers of wind, solar and storage projects, with the state government revealing in February that a registration of interest process received more than 34GW of proposals – more than 10 times its likely capacity.

“There were 49 registrations totalling over 34 gigawatts from potential generation and storage projects – thirteen times the intended capacity for the South-West REZ, which will be no less than 2.5 gigawatts,” James Hay, the CEO of state government entity Energy Corp, said at the time.

Spark Infrastructure – which was last year acquired by a North American consortium led by private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) – owns a 49% stake in Victorian distribution network companies Powercor and CitiPower, 49% of South Australia’s SA Power Networks, and a 15% stake in NSW transmission company Transgrid, which is building the NSW side of Project EnergyConnect, a new link from South Australia.

Spark Renewables’ assets include the operational 100MW Bomen Solar Farm and a number of wind, solar, storage and green hydrogen development assets across NSW and South Australia.