Six new big battery projects emerge as winners of first capacity tender
Six new big battery projects have been named as the early winners of the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme.
The six projects - two in Victoria and four in South Australia – are part of the government's flagship policy to propel the country towards its 2030 renewable energy target.
The projects, which include one of the biggest batteries to be built in Australia in the heart of the Latrobe Valley, will deliver more than 1,000 MW of capacity.
That's significantly more than the 600 MW sought in the pilot tender.
It's a promising result for the first tender in the program, which will seek a total of 23 GW of new wind and solar and 9,000 MW of storage in the coming years to reach 82% renewables by 2030.
The winners will be announced by federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen at a conference in Gippsland.
The biggest of them all is located in the Gippsland region - the 350 MW Wooreen battery to be built just outside of Morwell.
The other winner in Victoria is the 115 MW Springvale Energy Hub, which will be built on a former landfill site in south-eastern Melbourne.
The CIS is an underwriting agreement which guarantees minimum revenue for the projects, helping them secure cheaper finance.
It’s a model that is being used in NSW, and is also being rolled out in Western Australia. It is not yet known if prices will be revealed.