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New South Wales (NSW), which also houses state capital and Australia's largest city Sydney, has just declared its second Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), as part of its long term strategy to replace its fossil fuel driven electricity sector with renewable energy.
The latest zone is the New England REZ, based around Armidale in the state’s north. This comes two months after the first zone was declared, the Central-West Orana REZ. Besides other benefits, the zone also has opportunities for pimped hydro projects, which could be crucial for energy storage on demand.
The idea is to concentrate renewable energy capacity creation in these zones, complimented with large storage, to drive in higher scale economies as well as transmission infrastructure. Plans are also afoot to have some offshore zones where offshore wind or even tidal energy could be harnessed possibly.
The New England REZ planned for 8GW of wind, solar and storage capacity, but the response has been massive, with upto 25 GW worth interest indicated.