Tamworth's Global Gateway Park project could be supercharged in renewable power plan

Local renewables firm Wynergy has proposed to hook up the enormous estate to five megawatts of renewable power - behind the meter.

Tamworth Regional Council General Manager Paul Bennett said the "energy equation" had always been a huge part of the plan to create 1100 direct and indirect jobs at the new estate, which will be connected to the intermodal rail hub project.

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Mr Bennett said council was planning to take advantage of the billions in renewables investment set to pour into the region.

With the New England Renewable Zone set to be built just kilometres away, they will help connect energy-hungry business to nearby power plants, he said.

"I don't really give a bugger where they've drawn the lines on a map around where the renewable energy zone is. That's almost irrelevant," he said.

"If people think that the market for the electricity stuff is here in the Tamworth region then we'll declare our own renewable energy zone if we have to. The door's open."

The council is currently in negotiations with the company about the Wynergy proposal, and it would need to go to councillors for final signoff.

But discussions have been "fruitful", Mr Bennett said.

Wynergy founder and owner Ben Wynn explained that renewables are already the cheapest form of energy, beating out coal and gas.

And a proposal to connect users to the producer before the meter on a private network would slash costs even further, cutting out the middle-man, he said.

"It's cheaper because you don't have to pay Transgrid's and Essential Energy's transmission and distribution fees," he said.

"It will provide some fantastic competitive energy into the Global Gateway Park, if we get approval. We'll provide an agrivoltaic power station on its doorstep.

"This isn't just about squeezing off the energy we produce down the lines to Sydney and Newcastle. This is actually using the energy resource we have here to fire up local industry, and local jobs."

Mr Bennett said the project already has cheap water, connection to the Tamworth Intermodal Rail Hub and easy planning approval.

Cheap energy could be the final ingredient to give the project the best value proposition in regional NSW, he said.

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"I'm not going to get into a debate about the pros and cons of all the different types of power and baseload power and whether we should still have coal and all those sorts of things," he said.

"Certainly anything that comes from a renewable source has to be better rather than worse.

"Our attitude is that if there's a solution there that means we can utilise that sort of power, then we should pursue it, if it's cost-effective.

"If you can get a return on investment by making that investment then you do it. It has to stack up not just in environmental but also a social and also an economic perspective."

The power plant should be scalable to hundreds of megawatts of power, enough juice to run the entire industrial park. The saving would be about 5 to 10 cents a watt, Mr Wynn said.

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The intermodal rail hub, which will give business direct access to a Sydney rail connection, is expected to be completed by September.

A forecast conducted by Urbis found the site would be highly attractive to "larger, more sophisticated, regionally serving industrial tenants".

A total of $104.4 million will have been spent on the precinct by TRC and the state and federal governments, if the stage one plan is approved.

All of the first land packages made available in stage one are expected to be sold by June 30, 2025.

Council has already hooked up 11 projects to solar power.

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