Australia seeks bids for 1.6 GW of renewable energy generation

This capacity will benefit over 900,000 homes.

Australia has opened two new Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) tenders that will add 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM).

“These latest rounds will unlock an estimated $4b of additional private investment in the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) for the south-west region of Western Australian, including Perth,” the government said.

The additional 1.6 GW of clean power generation will be backed by 2.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean dispatchable capacity to the WEM. This is enough energy to power more than 900,000 households annually and enough storage to cover the peak load of 550,000 households for 4 hours.

Successful tenders will secure Western Australia’s energy grid by contributing to the state’s CIS capacity allocation of at least 2.3 GW of renewable generation and 4.4 GWh of clean dispatchable capacity.

Proponents will have ten weeks to submit their bids under the new streamlined CIS process.

Bidding closes on 7 November 2025