News

New large-scale renewable energy project development proposals in South Australia have been relatively quiet of late as successful applications from the previous busy period were being built out over the last few years.

However there is a new burst of activity with the state planning authority starting assessment of plans for three projects, including two solar farms and a revived wind farm.

Genaspi Energy Group is proposing the Bundey BESS and Solar project to be located around 9km north-east of Robertstown in the Regional Council of Goyder LGA.

The project will consist of an 800 MW / 3000 MWh BESS, 425 MW of solar photovoltaic modules installed over 984 hectares of land, and associated infrastructure and civil works.

The solar farm will be built in close proximity to the 330/275 kV Bundey Substation and associated 330kV transmission line.

Genaspi said in its application that the proposed development was not close to any residential properties and was on freehold land held by the company with no significant environmental and heritage impacts.

Bundey is Genaspi’s only renewable energy project in Australia, however the company was involved in the design and construction of the South Australian portion of the SAPEC interconnector.

Early this year Genaspi signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese battery maker Great Power.

A development application was submitted for the Bundey project’s solar component, with the BESS component granted planning approval exemption under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016.

Similarly, Akaysha Energy received an exemption for the BESS component of its proposed 209 MW Brinkworth Solar Farm project, to be located approximately 7km north of Brinkworth and 145km north of Adelaide in South Australia’s Mid North region.

A BESS of 300 MW of battery energy storage capacity with 4-hour storage duration (1200 MWh) is proposed at Brinkworth.

The development site covers four land parcels totaling approximately 470 hectares, primarily used for cropping and livestock farming, located close to the Brinkworth Substation and ElectraNet 275 kV transmission line.

The BESS and solar farm will connect to the grid separately. Akaysha proposes to start building the BESS next year, with the solar farm to follow starting mid-2026, dependent on market conditions.

Akaysha has undertaken technical investigations for the solar farm modelled on the candidate solar PV panel, JA Solar’s ‘JAM72D40 570/GB’.

The overall project, which will be Akaysha’s first solar farm, has an estimated capital expenditure value of approximately $420 million.

While not new, AGL Energy’s Barn Hill Wind Farm is the third project under assessment by the South Australian state planning authority.

The project will be located on a number of land parcels between Redhill and Mundoora in the Barunga Ranges of the Mid North Region, across the hilltops between Snowtown Wind Farm and Clements Gap Wind Farm.

AGL is planning construction of a 50-turbine, 360 MW wind farm; a 270 MW / 1080 MWh BESS; on-site substation; a 275kV overhead transmission line connection to the electricity grid; switchyard; operations & maintenance facilities; and up to four wind monitoring towers.

A new transmission line will connect the wind farm to the grid via a ‘cut in’ to an existing Bungama-Blyth West 275kV transmission line, located about 7km east of the project area.

Earlier layouts of the Barn Hill Wind Farm were originally granted approval in 2017 by the Port Pirie Regional Council and Wakefield Regional Council and determined not to be a controlled action under the EPBC Act.

The original proposal was for a 124 MW-180 MW project including installation of 62 wind turbines, however new wind turbine technology will enable greater generation capacity from a smaller number of larger turbines.

The project has an estimated development cost of $2120 million.