NSW deep dive › South West REZ › Dinawan Energy Hub — Solar Farm + BESS (POC 3)

Dinawan Energy Hub — Solar Farm + BESS (POC 3)

Spark Renewables

solarapprovedConfidence: Very high

Capacity and technology

Technology

solar

Capacity (MW)

300 MW

Storage

1.57 GWh

Estimated capex, local spend and peak workforce

Total development cost

~$1.46B benchmark estimate

300 MW × $1.2M/MW (solar) + + 1574 MWh × $0.7M/MWh (co-located BESS)

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

~$322M 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

~150 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

~38 FTE

Electrical trades

~45 FTE

Mechanical / structural

~15 FTE

Plant operators

~15 FTE

PM / engineering / env

~15 FTE

Logistics / admin

~23 FTE

By phase (across construction window)

Phase	FTE	What's happening
Mobilisation + civils (year 1)	~90	Site prep, access roads, foundations, early electrical. Civil trades dominant.
Peak construction (year 2)	~150	All trades concurrent. Turbine / panel delivery, electrical install, commissioning prep.
Commissioning / demob (year 3)	~105	Specialist electrical and testing. Civil and structural ramping down.
Operations (ongoing)	~11	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 IPC (per proponent April 2026 announcement)

Access right status

awarded — SW REZ access scheme (300 MW solar + BESS component)

EPBC status

verify

Grid connection

Dinawan substation operational background

Financial close

post-approval; not at financial close

Construction start

unknown

Operations start

unknown

Location

LGA

Murrumbidgee

Region

Riverina NSW — between Coleambally and Jerilderie

REZ

South West REZ

REZ relationship

inside declared REZ

Coordinates

-34.7, 146 (approximate)

Status timeline

2026-04-22 · access right awarded
Access rights confirmed under the SW REZ access scheme — Dinawan Energy Hub POC 3.

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
Dinawan Energy Hub — Spark Renewables
https://sparkrenewables.com/category/dinawan-news/ ↗
Includes Dinawan Solar Farm approval announcement (April 2026).

Notes

Capacity updated to 800 MW solar + 1,574 MWh BESS per proponent announcement. Approved while combined wind farm remains under assessment. Solar + BESS component of the Dinawan Energy Hub access right (300 MW; full hub = 1,007 MW including the 707 MW wind farm).

Source confidence: 85/100
Last verified: 2026-05-18
Every material fact on this page is sourced. A "View source" link is provided per source below.

Source evidence

Confidence: Very 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.
primaryEnergyCo NSW
View source ↗
Primary authority for NSW Renewable Energy Zones, access schemes, access-right tender outcomes and REZ project coordination under the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2020.
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

South West REZ

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

LGA detail

Murrumbidgee

8 projects · everything affecting this council area

Workforce + supply ratio

Demand vs ABS baseline

How this REZ's peak compares to existing regional workforce

Regional spend

Annual flow by year