Industry think tank Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA) has released its monthly Australia and New Zealand Infrastructure (ANZIP) Pipeline report identifying 12 new member energy projects added in the past 12 months.
Following the signing of a Fast-Track Approvals (FTA) Bill in New Zealand (NZ) in 2024, a total of 10 energy projects were added to the pipeline there, though the NZ government announced a schedule of 22 renewable energy projects to be included in its Bill with a combined 3 GW of capacity.
Of the 12 energy member projects, the proposed solar farms are United Kingdom-headquartered Harmony Energy’s 400 MW Bunnythorpe Solar Farm on the North Island and 110 MW Hinuera Solar Farm in Waikato, on the South Island.
Also on the South Island, Auckland-headquartered Lodestone Energy’s 180 MW Haldon Solar Project, the Rotorua-based Tauhara North No.2 Trust’s 105 MW Rotokawa Solar Farm located east of Taupo in the North, and Far North Solar Farm’s 420 MW Point Solar Farm near Lake Benmore in Canterbury, were added to the pipeline.
In Australia, two projects were added including the Greece-headquartered Metlon Group’s 2.4 GW / 4.8 GWh Denman battery energy storage system (BESS) in New South Wales (NSW), which has been scoped and will be located in the Hunter-Centre Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), though not proposed to use REZ infrastructure.
The second project added in the past month, is Spain-headquartered X-Elio’s 120 MW / 240 MWh Sixteen Mile Solar Farm and BESS, located 22 kilometres south of Chinchilla in Hopeland, Queensland.
Two energy projects were also completed, including France-headquartered Neoen’s Collie Battery – Stage One in Western Australia.
Project updates in the report include in NSW, the Canada-headquartered Canadian Solar’s 250 MW solar Gunning Solar Farm and 150 MW / 600 MWh BESS, which received final consent for development, and Sydney-based Alinta Energy’s 900 MW 8-hour Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro project, located 630 kilometres north of Sydney, which is progressing its design and preliminary procurement discussions.
Approvals was also announced for the London-headquartered Lightsource bp’s 450 MW Goulburn River Solar Farm and battery and Transgrid’s Victoria to NSW Interconnector (VNI) – NSW side, which included a revision of its 200 metre-wide corridor to 70 metres.
