The Wooderson solar-plus-storage project in Central Queensland has been given the green light to go ahead following its designation as ‘not a controlled action’ status by the Australian government under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The decision was made by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCEEW) and means the project can go ahead without further federal environmental assessments.
The Wooderson project is located 40 kilometers southwest of Gladstone, Central Queensland, and approximately 543 kilometers north of Brisbane. It is being developed by Central Queensland Power (CQP), a joint venture between United-Kingdom headquartered renewable energy company Renewable Energy System Group, and Sydney-based developer Energy Estate.
The development spans a project area of 5,618 hectares distributed across 14 individual land parcels and local road corridors. It incorporates 450 MW of solar PV and 3.6 GWh of BESS with an eight-hour capacity. Crucially, it will be DC-coupled, meaning the battery will be integrated on the DC side of the PV array – a configuration which is relatively new in the Australian market but is thought to be more efficient than standard co-location and AC coupling because it can require less hardware in turn can reduce the environmental impact of such developments.
Aussie DC
Australia’s first DC-coupled hybrid project came online in 2023. More recently, in October 2025, Wärtsilä announced it was planning to build what it claimed would be Australia’s largest DC-coupled hybrid BESS, which the company stated would be “significantly larger” than its earlier DC-coupled project, the 128 MWh Fulham Solar Battery Hybrid project Victoria. It did not specify the exact capacity, however.
The Wooderson project is not the only large-scale solar and storage projects undergoing environmental assessment. In Western Australia, Tonic Group secured EPBC approval for its 440 MWh solar-plus-storage project, while BW ESS is proposing its 400 MW/2 GWh of BESS with supporting infrastructure in New South Wales. Construction is expected to begin in the second or third quarter of this year, subject to approval.
The Wooderson solar-and-storage project’s actual infrastructure footprint is concentrated within a ‘disturbance area’ of approximately 1,849 hectares, compared to the total project area of more than 5,000 hectares.
Australia’s DCEEW has been reforming the EPBC Act in recent months. While it did not specifically address DC-coupling for renewable energy projects, the legislation will favor projects with increased efficiency and it limits approval pathways for fossil fuel sites, which may also impact renewable energy and storage projects positively.
CQP Director of Development Mike Whitbread said the decision on Wooderson strengthens the pathway for new regional jobs, long-term investment and the clean energy transition already underway in Central Queensland.
“Central Queensland Power is committed to working closely with landholders, industry partners, and the community as the project advances through the State approvals process,” Whitbread added.
The developers previously stated that operations at the site could start in the first quarter of 2031, subject to EPBC approval. They added that they expected construction to start in the first quarter of 2028.
The approximately $2 billion (USD 1.4 billion) facility could supply the equivalent electricity used by around 235,000 houses and offset an estimated 870,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
In addition to the solar and storage components, the permit includes the Wooderson project’s associated infrastructural needs such as a 275 kV transmission line to connect it to the Central Queensland power supply, access tracks, electrical reticulation cables and a substation.
From pv magazine Australia with reporting by Ev Foley
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