Perth company WestGen has dropped its plan for a solar farm near Byford and instead is aiming to build a 40-megawatt battery energy storage system on the same site.
SPECIAL REPORT: Gas peaking generation and utility scale batteries will become increasingly valuable in WA as coal power units are retired and new wind farms come online.
Wind and solar generation backed by storage are competitive with coal and gas, according to a recent report by the CSIRO, but that does not mean coal-fired generation will be out of the picture.
SPECIAL REPORT: About $3 billion of electricity projects are in the pipeline in WA, but technological change and regulatory pressure are creating investment uncertainty.
The state government has today announced that two private investors will co-invest with Synergy in a joint venture that is planning to build up to 210 megawatts of renewable energy projects in the South West Interconnected System.
Synergy intends to develop up to 280 megawatts of renewable energy projects in WA by 2020 after the McGowan government approved plans for a private investor to acquire a majority stake in its existing wind farm and solar farm and in two new projects.
SPECIAL REPORT: More than $1.6 billion of renewable energy projects are proposed for the South West Interconnected System, but their success may hinge on how the government handles two regulatory issues.
Renewable energy company WestGen has moved close to proceeding with WA's second new solar farm this year, after appointing key contractors for its $75 million Byford project.
Competition among developers of renewable energy projects in WA's South West is hotting up, with two solar farms starting construction this year and a further eight major projects hoping to join them.
Having invested million of dollars over many years in an uncertain regulatory environment, Western Australian private power station developers are now facing further delays due to proposed changes to the electricity market.
Western Australia could secure projects worth $1 billion under a reduced renewable energy target, although there is conjecture as to whether the final terms will be business friendly enough.
