The New South Wales Government is making rapid strides towards its renewable energy goals, with a flurry of recent approvals for major wind, solar and battery projects across the state.
Throughout 2023, the Department of Planning green lit 18 large-scale renewable developments, including three wind farms, six solar farms and nine big battery facilities. Among the approvals was the mammoth 1.5 gigawatt Yanco Delta wind farm in the Riverina – set to be the largest in Australia once operational.
According to NSW Government, the approved projects have a combined generation and storage capacity of 7.6 gigawatts in total. This renewable energy boom is estimated to cut NSW’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by a staggering 8.3 million tonnes while supporting over 3,000 construction and operations jobs, primarily in regional areas.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Penny Sharpe hailed the approvals as a significant milestone, saying “NSW is now about halfway towards our 2030 renewable generation target, and over a quarter of the way there on our long-duration storage target”.
The rollout shows no signs of slowing, with 29 additional renewable projects currently navigating the planning process and around 70 more anticipated to submit applications soon. The government has also released draft guidelines covering wind farms, transmission and community benefit-sharing to further streamline approvals.
“We will continue to drive the decarbonisation of our energy grid, setting NSW up with clean, reliable energy in the future,” Minister Sharpe said.
Her colleague Paul Scully, Minister for Planning, emphasised the economic impacts, saying the projects deliver “affordable energy to NSW residents while injecting millions into regional economies”.
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