June 10 (Renewables Now) - New South Wales (NSW) Treasurer and Minister for Energy Matt Kean on Friday announced AUD 1.2 billion (USD 860m/EUR 800m) in the Australian state’s 2022/2023 budget to support energy infrastructure investment over the next 10 years and accelerate renewable energy.

The Transmission Acceleration Facility is expected to unlock at least AUD 14 billion in private transmission infrastructure investment.

Additional transmission capacity across the state is needed for the around 16 GW of large-scale renewable energy projects currently in the NSW planning system to be able to proceed.

The Facility is aimed at fast-tracking the renewable energy zones that the government is looking to establish to replace existing power stations as they retire. It will provide development funding for new transmission projects, which is expected to be recovered and recycled into new projects.

The 700-MW Waratah Super Battery will become the Facility’s first investment. An expressions of interest (EoI) process for the battery has recently closed and submissions are currently under evaluation.

“Energy prices are up because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and unplanned outages at coal-fired power stations. Fast-tracking the construction of renewable energy is the best way to reduce our exposure to these risks and take advantage of cleaner, cheaper power sources,” said Kean.

(AUD 1 = USD 0.717/EUR 0.667)

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