NSW deep dive › South West REZ › Koorakee Energy Park

Koorakee Energy Park

Squadron Energy

hybridEIS preparationConfidence: High

Capacity and technology

Technology

hybrid

Capacity (MW)

2.00 GW

Storage

unknown

Estimated capex, local spend and peak workforce

Total development cost

~$4.70B benchmark estimate

1000 MW × $3.5M/MW (hybrid — wind component) + + 1000 MW × $1.2M/MW (hybrid — solar component)

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

~$1.03B 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

~1,000 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

~220 FTE

Electrical trades

~340 FTE

Mechanical / structural

~130 FTE

Plant operators

~80 FTE

PM / engineering / env

~100 FTE

Logistics / admin

~130 FTE

By phase (across construction window)

Phase	FTE	What's happening
Mobilisation + civils (year 1)	~600	Site prep, access roads, foundations, early electrical. Civil trades dominant.
Peak construction (year 2)	~1,000	All trades concurrent. Turbine / panel delivery, electrical install, commissioning prep.
Commissioning / demob (year 3)	~700	Specialist electrical and testing. Civil and structural ramping down.
Operations (ongoing)	~70	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

EIS preparation

Planning status

SEARs requested May 2024; Scoping Report lodged July 2024; preparing EIS; project update issued April 2025

Access right status

not awarded in 2024 SW REZ access round

EPBC status

verify on EPBC public portal

Grid connection

to be assessed alongside EIS

Financial close

subject to EIS approval

Construction start

unknown

Operations start

unknown

Location

LGA

Balranald Shire

Region

Riverina NSW — ~12 km north of Euston

REZ

South West REZ

REZ relationship

inside declared REZ

Coordinates

-34.45, 142.85 (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: HighPublished: 2025-04
Koorakee Energy Park — Squadron Energy
https://squadronenergy.com/our-projects/koorakee-energy-park/ ↗
~12 km north of Euston, Balranald Shire. Up to 1,000 MW wind (167 turbines) + solar component + battery (capacity TBD). ~2.2 million panels referenced in coverage. Targets ~639,000 homes equivalent.
otherConfidence: HighPublished: 2024-05-30
Squadron plans 2 GW renewables project for South West REZ — pv magazine Australia
https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2024/05/30/squadron-plans-2-gw-renewables-project-for-south-west-rez/ ↗
Independent coverage of the 2 GW combined capacity (~1 GW wind + ~1 GW solar + 1 GW battery with up to 12 hours storage).

Notes

Largest of Squadron's SW REZ portfolio. Treated as single energy park rather than split entries given proponent framing. BESS capacity in MW referenced as 1 GW with up to 12 hours storage; MWh figure uncertain pending EIS. Hybrid classification.

Source confidence: 74/100
Last verified: 2026-05-14
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

South West REZ

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

LGA detail

Balranald Shire

3 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