$43B potential investments for energy, green manufacturing projects

New South Wales’s Illawarra Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) has attracted $43 billion worth of potential investments in response to a call for expressions of interest for large-scale energy and green manufacturing projects.

44 projects have been registered – including offshore and onshore wind, solar, energy storage, pumped hydro, green hydrogen and green steel – potentially delivering 17 gigawatts of generation and storage capacity.

Registered industry interest includes more than $35 billion in potential investment from 10 wind generation projects, with 8 located offshore, totalling 12.9 gigawatts of generation capacity.

These projects include five solar projects; 16 energy storage projects including 11 batteries; four pumped hydro projects; four hydrogen production and two hydrogen electricity generation projects; and three new load projects including green steel manufacturing.

Minister for Energy Matt Kean said the response to the expression of interest had been “tremendous”.

“The Illawarra REZ will help deliver cheap and reliable energy, power existing industries, support emerging industries to thrive and create thousands of new jobs in the future,” Kean said.

Between 9 June and 22 July 2022, EnergyCo ran a Registration of Interest (ROI) process for the Illawarra REZ. This was the first step in engaging with industry on the design of the REZ.

The information collected through the ROI process will be used to inform the best timing, capacity, design and location of the Illawarra REZ. EnergyCo will be engaging closely with the local community, industry, local government and other stakeholders as the design and delivery of the REZ progresses.

The Illawarra REZ is expected to be formally declared under the NSW Government’s Electricity Roadmap legislation by the end of 2022.

For more information on the REZ, click here.

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