Bowen signs deal to treble large scale wind and solar capacity, and double storage in the West
The federal and state Labor governments have signed a deal that locks in Commonwealth funding to nearly treble the amount of large scale wind and solar capacity in Western Australia, and provide another massive boost to storage capacity in the state.
The deal announced by the two governments comes as the first big battery storage tender – seeking 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity and 2,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of storage opens on Monday. A total of 1,100 MW and 4,400 MWh of storage will be sought in this and subsequent storage tenders, with most likely to be in the form of big batteries.
The deal signed by federal energy minister Chris Bowen and his state counterpart Reece Whitby also flags 6.5 terrawatt hours (TWh) of new generation, which is equivalent to more than 2 gigawatts (GW) of new wind and solar.
That will effectively treble the amount of wind and solar on the state’s main grid – known as the South West Interconnected System – and lift its share of generation to more than 50 per cent. (The state currently has around 1.2 GW of large scale wind and solar and annual production of around 3.6 GWh).
