One of Australia’s largest renewable energy transmission projects has expanded zones for solar, battery and wind developments with the cost of connection to almost double.
The latest version of Victoria’s 2025 Transmission Plan, released by state government agency VicGrid on Sunday, revealed a 200,000-hectare increase in the area available to developers.
The plan outlines the parts of the state designated as renewable energy zones and the new transmission infrastructure needed in the next 15 years to connect them to the grid.
The latest version increases areas of land designated as hubs for wind, solar and battery farms from 1.66m hectares proposed in May to 1.88m hectares across six proposed renewable energy zones.
The amendment increases the footprint of these areas to 7.9% of the state, up from 7.0% in the original draft proposal, after industry feedback said larger areas were needed to make projects technically and commercially…
