Australia inks deals with Western, South Australia for renewable energy projects

These include developing a 6.5 TWh wind and solar facility.

The Australian Government has signed agreements with the governments of Western Australia and South Australia for the development of new clean energy generation and storage facilities.

In a statement, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water said a bilateral  Renewable Energy Transformation Agreement was signed with the Australian Government on 19 July. Through this, the Australian Government will support developers in Western Australia to build a minimum of 6.5 terawatt-hours of new wind and solar projects in the area, as well as 1.1 gigawatt of new storage capacity.

This builds on allocations of renewable energy to the states and territories through the Capacity Investment Scheme, the department said. 

Western Australia eyes closing its state-owned coal-fired power stations by 2030 and replace them with renewable electricity generation and storage

The national government also signed a bilateral Renewable Energy Transformation Agreement with the South Australian Government on 10 July. This will support developers to build a minimum of 1,000 megawatts (MW) of new wind and solar projects, enough to power all the homes in Adelaide, as well as 400 MW of new storage capacity.

South Australia aims to deliver the Hydrogen Jobs Plan by early 2026 through the building of a renewable hydrogen power plant, a hydrogen electrolyser, and a storage facility. It will also establish a grid reliability mechanism in the next 12 months to maintain energy reliability which will be in line with a new South Australian reliability benchmark. 

“Through the agreements, the governments of Western Australia and South Australia agree to work with the Australian Government to support achieving the national target of 82% renewable electricity by 2030,” the department said.