NSW deep dive › South West REZ › Saltbush Wind Farm

Saltbush Wind Farm

Octopus Investments Australia

windEIS preparationConfidence: High

Capacity and technology

Technology

wind

Capacity (MW)

400 MW

Storage

1.20 GWh

Estimated capex, local spend and peak workforce

Total development cost

~$2.24B benchmark estimate

400 MW × $3.5M/MW (wind, NSW 2025-26 escalated) + + 1200 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

~$493M 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

~280 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

~84 FTE

Electrical trades

~50 FTE

Mechanical / structural

~62 FTE

Plant operators

~34 FTE

PM / engineering / env

~28 FTE

Logistics / admin

~22 FTE

By phase (across construction window)

Phase	FTE	What's happening
Mobilisation + civils (year 1)	~168	Site prep, access roads, foundations, early electrical. Civil trades dominant.
Peak construction (year 2)	~280	All trades concurrent. Turbine / panel delivery, electrical install, commissioning prep.
Commissioning / demob (year 3)	~196	Specialist electrical and testing. Civil and structural ramping down.
Operations (ongoing)	~20	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 issued; EIS in preparation; project lodged on NSW Major Projects portal as Booroorban (Saltbush) Wind Farm

Access right status

not awarded in 2024 SW REZ access round

EPBC status

verify on EPBC public portal

Grid connection

grid-connection options under assessment

Financial close

subject to determination

Construction start

2028

Operations start

2030

Location

LGA

Edward River

Region

Riverina NSW — Booroorban (north of Deniliquin)

REZ

South West REZ

REZ relationship

inside declared REZ

Coordinates

-34.93, 145.13 (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
Saltbush Wind Farm — Octopus Investments Australia
https://octopusinvestments.com.au/our-projects/saltbush-wind-farm-and-battery/ ↗
400 MW wind (up to 68 turbines, 280m tip height) + 600 MW / 1,200 MWh BESS. Located at Booroorban, ~76 km north of Deniliquin.
planning portal pageConfidence: Very high
Booroorban (Saltbush) Wind Farm — NSW Planning Portal
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/booroorban-saltbush-wind-farm ↗
Major Projects portal listing.

Notes

Octopus Investments Australia development. Co-located solar farm referenced on proponent site (capacity unspecified). Powering ~173,000 homes per Octopus. Inside Edward River Council area.

Source confidence: 78/100
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: 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

Edward River

6 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