The Australian government has released its inaugural National Renewable Energy Priority List, which includes an additional 16GW of renewable energy generation and 6GW of energy storage capacity.
The list, created through collaboration with the federal government and its states and territories, aims to provide coordinated support for regulatory planning and environmental approval processes for the identified priority renewable energy projects across Australia.
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Australia’s inaugural Priority List identifies 56 priority projects nationally, including 24 transmission and 32 energy generation and storage projects. 
Seven of these 32 energy generation and storage projects feature solar PV, amounting to 4,130MW of capacity. Many of these projects feature a co-located battery energy storage system (BESS) to optimise the power plant, a trend that has risen across the world in recent years.
Noteworthy projects to have been added to the Priority List include the 1,000MW Australian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), a wind and solar hybrid project being pursued by AREH in Western Australia, and the Darwin Battery Energy Storage System (DBESS), which will feed into SunCable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) interconnector project.
The AAPowerLink project is set to deploy between 17GW and 20GW of solar capacity and between 36.42GWh and 42GWh of energy storage to connect Australia’s Northern Territory with Singapore via 4,300km of subsea cable and supply power to the territory’s capital, Darwin, and the surrounding region. You can find the energy generation and storage Priority List projects below.
According to the Australian government, projects in the Priority List adopt a ‘faster to yes, faster to no’ approach. Identified projects will receive additional support and facilitation through regulatory and environmental processes. However, they will still be subject to the same scrutiny as any other project and continue to be required to meet all statutory requirements. 
The government intends to boost regulatory capacity to improve its services for priority projects. This enhancement will help project proponents speed up their assessment timelines.
The new suite of services includes increased engagement and guidance to help identify and address potential issues early on, reducing the risk of delays in project timelines.
Despite this, the government confirmed that statutory timeframes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act apply to all projects, further reducing the risk of delays in the Commonwealth Environment Regulator’s consideration of projects.
As reported by PV Tech last week, analysis conducted by Rystad Energy found that all Australian solar PV and wind assets generated just over 4.5GWh of energy, up 14% year-on-year when it reached 3.9GWh.
New South Wales topped the list at the state level, generating 1,324GWh split between 813GWh from utility-scale solar PV and 511GWh from wind.
In the National Electricity Market (NEM), renewable energy generation, including hydro and biomass, reached 44% of the electricity mix in February—the highest recorded figure for the month. Meanwhile, in the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) covering Western Australia, renewable power accounted for 42% of the energy mix, up from the 37% figure recorded last year.
The 40MW Greenough River solar PV plant in Western Australia was deemed the best-performing utility-scale solar asset in the country in terms of AC capacity factor across the month. The project is owned by Bright Energy Investments – a joint venture between DIF Capital Partners, superannuation fund Cbus and state-owned Synergy.
Our publisher, Solar Media, will be hosting the Energy Storage Summit Australia 2025 in Sydney from 18-19 March. You can get 20% off your ticket by following the link here.

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