Australia awards 19 projects in biggest ever renewables tender
Tender results announced as Australia gears up for election in which energy policy will be a key battleground
Squadron Energy, ACEN Australia and Neoen were among the major wind power winners as Australia announced the results of its biggest ever renewables tender with 6.4GW of capacity awarded across 19 projects.
Australia today announced the results of the tender, which it said brought through enough capacity to power three million homes. This was the first round of Australia’s Capacity Investment Scheme, which aims to support 32GW of new capacity.
The projects awarded contracts included 3.6GW of onshore wind capacity and are spread across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.
The biggest project awarded was the 936MW Valley of the Winds development in New South Wales, which went to ACEN Australia, a subsidiary of Filipino developer ACEN.
Squadron Energy, owned by leading Australian renewables investor Andrew Forrest, won a 700MW contract for the Spicers Creek Wind Farm in the same state.
French developer Neoen won a 600MW contract for its Kentbruck Wind Farm in Victoria. It also secured deals for its Goyder North Stage 1 Wind Farm in South Australia and its 230MW Thunderbolt Wind Farm in New South Wales.
The final wind project was the 585MW Junction Rivers wind farm in New South Wales, which also comes with an 800MWh battery energy storage system. Australian developer Windlab is leading that project.
Five of the 12 solar projects awarded contracts also come with battery storage components.
Most of the 19 projects awarded contracts are expected to begin operating between 2026 and 2028. Together, the government said they “mark a major step” towards Australia’s target of 82% renewable electricity by 2030.
The successful projects were chosen from 84 bids proposing to deliver about four and a half times more capacity than what was tendered for. The government said this demonstrated a strong pipeline of investors wanting to invest in renewables.
Bids are now coming in for the third and fourth tender rounds of the capacity investment scheme which opened last month, it said. “Together they will deliver more than one and a half times more energy than the first tender.”
Australia’s minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said that the previous Coalition government had “ignored the experts and refused to take advantage of our abundant sun and wind, leaving households paying the price of having a grid that’s too reliant on expensive, unreliable, ageing coal and exposed to international price shocks.”
The current Labor government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is “delivering Australian households and businesses an energy system that is lowest cost, more reliable and better equipped to power Australian homes and businesses now and into the future.”
The tender results come as Australia heads towards an election in May next year, with renewables champion Albanese up against the right-leaning Coalition led by opposition leader Peter Dutton, a nuclear evangelist.
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