Australia's largest battery candidate enters approvals as storage pipeline hits record
A proposed New South Wales battery with up to 10 hours of storage is seeking federal and state approvals as Australia's storage pipeline swells.
The 800 MW Kingswood battery project near Tamworth has moved into federal and state planning approvals, a development that would make it one of Australia's largest storage facilities if built. Iberdrola's contested battery, which would hold up to 10 hours of storage, is seeking the green light from both the federal environment minister and New South Wales planning authorities, with the federal EPBC process having already cleared the project in about seven weeks during late May (2026-05-25).2
The approvals push matters because it tests whether Australia's planning regime can keep pace with a storage pipeline that is expanding faster than the grid can absorb. Western Australia approved a six-hour, 800 MW battery in the week of June 15 (2026-06-15) and simultaneously kicked off the development application for an eight-hour project, while the federal government has been awarding storage capacity at a record clip through its Capacity Investment Scheme.4
Federal officials awarded 19 projects under CIS Tender 7 in late May (2026-05-24), delivering 7.8 GW of renewable generation and 7.9 GWh of battery storage through hybrid projects. The tender exceeded its 5 GW target by more than 50%, and the 53 bids that came in totalled 18.6 GW of capacity, suggesting developers see a clear market for long-duration storage even as the economics of individual projects remain contested.1,3
That overallocation signals urgency from Canberra to hit emissions targets, with wind taking 4.8 GW of the awarded capacity against 3 GW for solar. New South Wales secured the largest share with nine projects totalling roughly 3.9 GW of generation and 6.4 GWh of storage, which is why the Kingswood approvals are being watched closely by developers who need to see whether state and federal processes can run in parallel without tripping over each other.1
The pipeline numbers are striking. Following government tenders for nearly 10 GW of new renewable capacity, Australia's probable clean energy project pipeline jumped about 30% to 32.3 GW in the biggest surge on record, Bloomberg reported on Thursday (2026-06-18). The total of accredited, committed and probable projects has now reached nearly 70 GW.3
Yet the disconnect between project pipeline and financial close is widening. Financial commitments for new generation slumped 46% in 2025, with only 2.3 GW of new renewable generation reaching financial close last year, according to Australia's Clean Energy Regulator. That gap between what is being approved and what is being financed is the key risk for the storage buildout, and it is why approvals like Kingswood matter beyond the single project.3
In the first quarter of 2026, renewables supplied 46.5% of generation in the National Electricity Market, the highest share on record for a first quarter, with batteries playing a greater role in market services. But that record share masks the reality that much of the new capacity being awarded under CIS tenders is still years from operation, and the storage component is essential to firming the wind and solar that won the bulk of Tender 7's capacity.3
The Kingswood project itself has been contested locally, and the federal EPBC wave-through in seven weeks does not guarantee smooth passage at the state level. Iberdrola has framed the battery's 10-hour duration as a differentiating feature in a market where most projects offer four to eight hours, but the economics of long-duration storage in the NEM are still being tested by actual dispatch patterns rather than modelled revenue stacks.2
Western Australia's approvals this month (June 2026) show the direction of travel: a six-hour giant with 4.8 GWh of storage was waved through while an eight-hour project began its development application process. The state operates one of the world's biggest isolated grids, which means its storage requirements are more acute, but the pattern of ever-longer durations is spreading across the country.4
For traders watching the NEM, the relevant signal is not the headline capacity numbers but the speed at which approved projects convert to financial close. The 46% slump in commitments last year came despite record renewables share and a supportive federal tender framework, which suggests either developer caution on merchant revenue or a bottleneck in offtake contracting is not being resolved by CIS awards alone.3
The next catalyst is whether Kingswood's state approval follows the federal one within a comparable timeframe. Iberdrola's project ran the EPBC process in seven weeks, far faster than the multi-year delays that have plagued some Australian transmission projects. A similarly quick state ruling would give the storage sector evidence that the approvals bottleneck is easing. A slow one will reinforce the view that the pipeline numbers are running ahead of deliverability.2