Palisade buys 1.2GW of Australian wind and battery projects through Intera Renewables
The deal brings 600MW of wind capacity and 3,200MWh of battery storage into Palisade's NEM pipeline as annual capacity additions set a new record.
Palisade Investment Partners acquired two development-stage renewable energy projects in Australia's National Electricity Market on Tuesday (2026-09-15), channelling private capital into hybrid wind-and-battery assets through its Intera Renewables platform.5
The two projects together account for the 1.2GW headline. MREP will pair up to 600MW of wind with a co-located 400MWac/1,600MWh battery storage system. WRESST, the second acquisition, is a standalone 400MWac/1,600MWh battery project sited approximately 10km northeast of Benalla in Victoria, next to the Glenrowan Terminal Station. Both remain at development stage, with grid connection approvals, planning permits and project financing still ahead.5
The Intera team's track record provides context for the deal's risk profile. It has previously established a 10GW project pipeline and advanced more than 1.2GW of renewable energy projects into delivery, according to the announcement. Palisade is acquiring development risk alongside that execution history, not operating assets.5
Victoria is a logical setting for new battery investment. The state was the NEM's top performer for combined utility solar and wind in August 2026, generating 1,387GWh — of which 1,174GWh came from wind — according to Rystad Energy analysis published on 7 September (2026-09-07). Placing a 400MWac battery adjacent to an existing terminal station at Glenrowan addresses a recurring bottleneck: storage that can absorb variable renewable output and redispatch it without requiring new transmission corridors.4
Curtailment data underline that logic. NEM utility-scale PV curtailment fell to 168GWh in August 2026, around 9% of available generation, down from 284GWh, or roughly 18%, in August 2025, Rystad Energy reported. The improvement is real, but 9% curtailment across an expanding generation base still represents a significant drag on asset economics, and batteries positioned at transmission nodes are part of how the system reduces it.4
The NEM added a record 9.1GW of new generation and storage capacity in the 2026 financial year, more than double the FY25 total, according to the Australian Energy Regulator. Wind project applications alone hit a record 5.2GW in FY26.3
Government procurement is adding depth to that pipeline. CIS Tender 7 awarded 7.8GW across 19 projects in May 2026 (2026-05-24), exceeding its original 5GW target by more than 50%, according to PV-Tech. Wind accounted for 4.8GW of the awarded capacity, against 3GW for solar. Fifty-three bids totalling 18.6GW competed for those awards, roughly 2.4 times the contracted volume.2
NSW secured nine of the Tender 7 projects, taking approximately 3.9GW of generation and 6.4GWh of storage, the largest state allocation. The state has since opened Tender 8 for 2.5GW of new infrastructure, its largest renewable tender to date. Victoria will be watching how much development bandwidth that NSW procurement pull draws across the state border.2,1
NEM aggregate renewable output in August confirmed continued growth. Combined utility-scale solar and wind generated 4.99TWh across the NEM in the month, up 3% from 4.86TWh in August 2025, Rystad Energy's David Dixon reported. More than 1GW of utility-scale generation and storage capacity reached financial close across the NEM during August alone.4
South Australia NEM day-ahead spot power stood at A$61.87/MWh at 08:19 UTC on Tuesday (2026-09-15). MREP and WRESST are years from dispatch, and the wholesale market they will eventually enter is already absorbing a record wave of new capacity. [live prices]
For Palisade, the siting of WRESST beside the Glenrowan Terminal Station is an explicit grid rationale: an existing transmission node rather than a greenfield interconnection. Both projects remain at development stage, and Intera's stated track record of advancing more than 1.2GW from a 10GW pipeline into delivery is the benchmark against which this acquisition will be measured.5