NSW deep dive › New England REZ › Thunderbolt Wind Farm

Thunderbolt Wind Farm

Neoen Australia

windapprovedConfidence: High

Capacity and technology

Technology

wind

Capacity (MW)

192 MW

Estimated capex, local spend and peak workforce

Total development cost

~$672M benchmark estimate

192 MW × $3.5M/MW (wind, NSW 2025-26 escalated)

Industry benchmark only — not project-specific. Sources: Clean Energy Council, BloombergNEF 2024 Australian utility-scale LCOE inputs, AEMO ISP 2024 cost assumptions. Actual capex varies materially by site, OEM, supply chain and grid-connection works.

Estimated local / regional spend

~$148M benchmark estimate

22% of capex — Clean Energy Council benchmark for renewable energy construction in regional Australia. Actual local content varies by project siting, procurement strategy and any access-scheme local-content conditions.

Estimated peak construction workforce

~134 roles benchmark estimate

Industry benchmark: ~0.7 FTE/MW wind, 0.5 FTE/MW solar, 0.4 FTE/MWh BESS, 1.5 FTE/MW pumped hydro. Peak during civil/electrical phase only — operations workforce is typically ~5-10% of construction peak.

Workforce breakdown — sector mix and phasing

Sector mix and phase distribution for the estimated construction workforce. Basis: industry norm (Clean Energy Council, ARENA, AEMO ISP 2024 + comparable EIS Social Impact Assessments). Numbers are decision-support indicators, not a project-specific forecast.

By service sector / industry (peak year)

Civil / earthworks

~40 FTE

Electrical trades

~24 FTE

Mechanical / structural

~29 FTE

Plant operators

~16 FTE

PM / engineering / env

~13 FTE

Logistics / admin

~11 FTE

By phase (across construction window)

Phase	FTE	What's happening
Mobilisation + civils (year 1)	~80	Site prep, access roads, foundations, early electrical. Civil trades dominant.
Peak construction (year 2)	~134	All trades concurrent. Turbine / panel delivery, electrical install, commissioning prep.
Commissioning / demob (year 3)	~94	Specialist electrical and testing. Civil and structural ramping down.
Operations (ongoing)	~9	Permanent O&M workforce — typically 5–10% of construction peak. Plus periodic major-maintenance windows.

Sector mix from CEC, ARENA and AEMO ISP workforce profiles for utility-scale Australian builds. Phase distribution from comparable EIS Social Impact Assessments. Indicative only — actual workforce varies with OEM, contractor strategy, weather and OSOM scheduling.

Approvals and access rights

Project status

approved

Planning status

Approved by NSW IPC subject to conditions, 8 May 2024

Access right status

not awarded — NE REZ access scheme yet to be declared

EPBC status

verify on EPBC public portal

Grid connection

subject to NE REZ network design

Financial close

post-approval; not at financial close

Construction start

unknown

Operations start

unknown

Location

LGA

Tamworth Regional / Uralla Shire

Region

Northern Tablelands NSW — ~30 km SW of Uralla, ~47 km NE of Tamworth

REZ

New England REZ

REZ relationship

inside declared REZ

Coordinates

-30.85, 151.2 (approximate)

Project documents — EIS, SEARs, proponent pages

Direct links to public documents and pages for this project. Phase 2 ingestion will pull updates automatically; Sprint 0 entries are verified manually with a confidence score per record.

proponent pageConfidence: Very high
Thunderbolt Energy Hub — Neoen Australia
https://thunderboltwindfarm.com.au/ ↗
Up to 32 wind turbines, ~6-7 MW each (~192 MW total). Between Bendemeer and Kentucky, ~47 km NE of Tamworth.
approval instrumentConfidence: Very highPublished: 2024-05-08
Thunderbolt Wind Farm — IPC determination (8 May 2024)
https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/news/2024/05/thunderbolt-wind-farm ↗
NSW Independent Planning Commission approval subject to conditions.

Notes

First NE REZ wind farm IPC-approved at this scale. Two-LGA project. Spans Tamworth and Uralla council areas. Construction date dependent on Neoen post-approval engineering and grid-connection sequencing.

Source confidence: 84/100
Last verified: 2026-05-15
Every material fact on this page is sourced. A "View source" link is provided per source below.

Source evidence

Confidence: High

primaryNSW Planning Portal — Major Projects
View source ↗
Authoritative for NSW SSD and SSI planning status. Hosts each project's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), SEARs, response to submissions, and other planning documents. Outranks proponent and media reports for planning_status. Per-project EIS and SSD page URLs are tracked under each project's project_documents.
secondaryProponent project websites
View source ↗
Proponent-supplied content from each project's dedicated page on the proponent's website. Useful for technology, capacity intent, community engagement messaging, project newsletters, fact sheets and timeline updates. Cannot override official planning_status or epbc_status. Per-project page URLs are tracked under each project's project_documents.

Open questions

Planning status against the NSW Planning Portal — verify SSD reference.
EPBC referral status — verify against DCCEEW public notices.
Storage MWh and voltage figures — confirm from proponent documents and AEMO Generation Information.
Workforce and accommodation commitments — confirm in SSD documentation or VPA.
First Nations engagement reporting — confirm in IEP / cultural heritage chapter.

See this project in context

REZ workspace

New England REZ

All projects, pressure bands and shared-value commitments for this REZ

LGA detail

Tamworth Regional

7 projects · everything affecting this council area

LGA detail

Uralla Shire

11 projects · everything affecting this council area

Workforce + supply ratio

Demand vs ABS baseline