In March 2025, the Australian Government released its National Renewable Energy Priority List of projects.  Together with states and territories, the Government considered generation, storage and transmission projects across Australia.  The resulting list delivers five renewable and storage projects per state and one for each territory.  This inaugural list identifies 56 projects across Australia; 24 transmission projects and 32 generation and storage projects[1].  If the projects on the list are all approved and commissioned, they can deliver an additional 16GW of generation and approximately 6GW of storage capacity across the nation, providing annual electricity needs for over 9 million homes.

Environmental and planning approvals play an important role in progressing grid-scale renewable projects, as do the enabling transmission lines which ensure that energy can power our homes and businesses.  It is important that these decisions are well informed, with consistent and efficient assessment so that we appropriately balance nature positive with the need to power our communities and limit further climate change and its impacts.

The 24/25 federal budget provided $96.6m over four years to support timely environmental approvals of which $19.9m over four years was to specifically streamline the assessment of national priority renewable energy projects[2] under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.  Combined with the Renewable Energy Transition Agreements signed with the states, both the federal and state approval processes should be streamlined, better resourced and complementary. 

The projects on this priority list will be supported by more efficient environmental and planning approval decisions.  The faster to Yes and faster to No is welcome.  There is benefit in the right commercially-viable projects proceeding in a more timely manner and improving the overall pace of the energy transition.

Better alignment of renewable and emissions strategy and environmental strategies and between federal and state processes is welcomed.  Work undertaken by CEIG has noted the volume of approvals sought increasing over time as well as the timeframes to determinations.

How did the Priority List come together?

States and territories developed a methodology to assess projects.  Essentially the in-scope projects are those that are key transmission projects that support integration of renewables into the grid.  On the renewable side, the criteria for projects are:

• on grid
• greater than 30MW
• pre-construction, and
• scheduled for completion by 31 Dec 2031.

Renewable projects are assessed against three weighted criteria:

• energy – 60%,
• heritage – 20%, and
• environment – 20%.

The energy subcategories include:

• the nominated capacity,
• connection status and access rights where relevant,
• government commitments, such as support via the capacity Investment scheme, the NSW Long-term services agreement and the Certification of Reserve Capacity mechanism in WA,
• whether the project is part of a Renewable Energy Zone, and
• distance and capacity of the nearest transmission infrastructure.

The transmission projects have been drawn from the AEMO 2024 ISP as actionable, committed or anticipated ISP projects.  Generation projects are also sourced from AEMO’s generator information page and a number of other reputable sources.  The sub elements of the three main criteria are scored to deliver an achievable and balanced list of projects.

Government support and funding support for these projects is welcome.  Further prioritisation of renewable generation projects should not just consider whether governments have provided some form of support or underwriting but also whether the project is likely to be commercially viable and reach a financial investment decision.  Interestingly whether there is sufficient transmission capacity on the nearest transmission line to be able to dispatch that renewable project’s energy is a small consideration on project selection with an 8% weighting. 

Which transmission projects are on the list?

The list below includes national priority transmission projects which are being progressed under a number of differing regulatory frameworks.  What is important is that these projects provide long-term benefits to consumers to provide a reliable and secure power system.  Whilst the 34 generation projects are too numerous to list, it is essential that the projects are commercially viable generation projects, able to dispatch energy and deliver the best value for consumers.

Several of the 24 transmission projects on the priority list, such as Humelink, Project EnergyConnect and Central West Orana REZ, have already received Commonwealth Environmental Regulatory approvals and may be supported in a post approval phase.

Priority List projects will be at varying stages, there will be opportunity no doubt for further sub prioritisation as the projects progress.

ENA welcomes the intent to strengthen and streamline approvals to help facilitate more timely emissions reduction in a balanced manner.  This is the inaugural list for prioritisation, as these projects proceed, new projects will be added to the list over time to utilise these enhanced processes.  This is just one part of the stronger governance to improve project delivery and community engagement outlined in the 24/25 budget.

Long-term policy certainty will ensure can keep the lights on and provide investment certainty.

[1] https://www.dcceew.gov.au/energy/renewable/priority-list

[2] https://archive.budget.gov.au/2024-25/bp1/download/bp1_bs-1.pdf

[3] https://www.ceig.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/HSF-x-CEIG-EPBC-Act-Report.pdf