A large area of high-quality agricultural land in the Upper Hunter will be preserved following a decision to redesign the corridor of the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
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While separate from the Hunter REZ, part of the Central-West Orana REZ transmission infrastructure runs through the Upper Hunter.
As part of the redesign, the majority of the corridor is now located on land owned by mining companies or alongside existing transmission lines.
"This new route is a win for the Upper Hunter community and reflects the Government's commitment to building new energy infrastructure in the right places," Member for the Upper Hunter David Layzell said.
The Central-West Orana REZ- one of five renewable energy zones in the state will suppot wind, solar and storage projects. The zones act like individual power stations in a grid that - within a decade - could be powered almost entirely by renewables and storage.
An expressions of interest for the Central-West REZ last year found more than 27gigawatts of potential renewable and storage capacity, nearly ten times more than the 3gigawatts that was being sought.
The Newcastle Herald reported earlier this month that more than $100 billion of potential renewable generation and storage investment has been lodged in the registration of interest for the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
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Commercial interest has been registered for more than 80 projects in the zone across the fields of solar energy, onshore and offshore wind energy, large-scale batteries and pumped hydro projects.
The projects together have the potential to deliver more than 100,000 gigawatt hours of renewable energy - equivalent to 10 coal fired power stations.
"These results show that energy investors see the Hunter and Central Coast as some of the best investment destinations anywhere in the country, which will translate into jobs and prosperity for the region," NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean said.
The REZ was announced in 2020 as part of the government's statewide renewable energy infrastructure roadmap, which aims to encourage $32 billion worth of private spending on renewable technology over 20 years.
The Energy Corporation of NSW (EnergyCo) will lead a competitive process to appoint a network operator to design, build, finance and maintain the new transmission infrastructure in the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone.
EnergyCo will undertake extensive community consultation and technical studies to refine the transmission alignment prior to lodging an Environmental Impact Statement for the project in early 2023.
For further details about the revised study corridor are available online here.
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