Sunshine Hydro’s NSW flagship project is in early stages of detailed planning. The land for the pumped hydro station is secured and the project is will strengthen the northern NSW grid by adding long duration storage.
As more renewable energy comes into the grid this project can store energy when it is plentiful and release back to the grid when needed. This is a capital efficient pumped hydro project due the very short separation distance between reservoirs, the closeness to strong transmission infrastructure, and efficient reservoir design.
The project will provide provide 4 GWh of energy storage: this is equivalent to 300,000 home batteries. It will also provide 240 MW of fast response generation which can be added to the grid when needed. It also provides 240 MW of load which is important to soak up excess renewable energy at times when it is abundant.