After a pause, SA planners receive burst of new development applications
Published Date : 2024-October-2, Wednesday
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.