Yesterday, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water (DCCEEW) announced that 19 projects had been selected from a list of 84 bidders, in the latest round of tenders as part of the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS). The official announcement states:

The 19 projects selected as part of this first national tender process, which opened in May, are a mixture of solar and wind generation, and hybrid projects which include a battery on site to ensure Australian homes have the cheapest available power when and where they need it, day or night.

Successful projects were chosen from 84 bids proposing to deliver about four and a half times more capacity than what was tendered for, demonstrating that the pipeline of investors wanting to construct and operate cheap, clean, reliable renewable projects in Australia is currently strong.

Bids are now coming in for the third and fourth tender rounds of the capacity investment scheme which opened last month. Together they will deliver more than one and a half times more energy than the first tender.

The list of successful projects included 7 standalone solar farms, 6 standalone wind farms, 5 solar + BESS co-located projects, and 1 wind + BESS co-located project.

Source: DCCEEW

When reading the list of winning bidders yesterday, I was somewhat surprised by the high number of standalone projects and their stated locations, given relatively weak market signals in recent years – which I summarised in my article here in October. However, it is worth noting that some of these standalone projects have some approvals in place that give the owner the option to co-locate storage on-site at a later date.

In total, the 19 projects were won by 12 developers – with 3 developers winning 3 projects a piece: Elgin Energy (all Solar + BESS), Lightsource BP (x2 standalone solar and x1 Solar + BESS), and Neoen (all standalone wind).

Media Commentary

Below is a summary of media coverage we’ve spotted since yesterday’s announcement by DCCEEW:

• Sabra Lane of ABC Radio did a segment titled Government announces funding for green power schemes
• Giles Parkinson from RenewEconomy wrote NSW gets lion’s share as 19 solar, wind and hybrid projects win Australia’s biggest renewable tender and later wrote CIS auction wins ensure South Australia will be first grid in world to reach 100 pct net wind and solar
• Ronald Mizen of the Australian Financial Review wrote Andrew Forrest-backed wind farm gets taxpayer revenue guarantee
• Ev Foley from PV Magazine wrote CIS generation tender 1 will deliver 2.75 GW of solar generation to the NEM
• Rob Verdonck from Bloomberg wrote Australia Picks BP, Neoen Projects in Biggest Renewables Tender