EDF's $1.5 Billion NSW Pumped Hydro Project Flags 80 Threatened Species in Federal Environmental Referral

EDF Power Solutions Australia has kicked off federal environmental assessment for the Wala Wala Pumped Hydro Energy Storage project in the Dungowan Valley, about 45 kilometers southeast of Tamworth in New South Wales. The initial biodiversity referral, filed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, found 80 threatened species with potential to occur across the site, according to Energy Storage News. Of those, 66 were assessed as having at least a moderate likelihood of presence and, applying the precautionary principle, are treated as likely to be significantly impacted, Energy Storage News reported. RenewEconomy breaks that figure down as 26 threatened plants, 35 threatened animals and birds, and five migratory bird species. Species named as most at risk include the Regent Honeyeater, Koala, Greater Glider, Large-eared Pied Bat and Spot-tailed Quoll. Two threatened ecological communities were also confirmed present on site: the critically endangered White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland, and the New England Peppermint Grassy Woodlands, per Energy Storage News.

What EDF Wants to Build Wala Wala is a

closed-loop, off-river pumped hydro design, meaning no natural river is diverted or drawn down. Two artificial reservoirs, one at roughly 1,131 meters elevation and one lower near Dungowan Creek, would be connected by an underground pipeline and a buried hydroelectric power station, according to Tech Times. The facility is pitched at 300 to 400 megawatts with 10 hours of storage duration, translating to 3,000 to 4,000 megawatt-hours of capacity, per Energy Storage News. RenewEconomy puts the project cost at $1.5 billion. EDF bought the project from Mirus Energy and Energy Estate in 2023 and lodged both state and federal applications last month, RenewEconomy reported. Water supply is still under negotiation, with the referral indicating at least partial reliance on the existing Dungowan Dam, subject to consultation with Tamworth Regional Council. The referral also flags a gap that hasn't been resolved: the project sits within the traditional boundaries of the Gomeroi peoples, and EDF's own filing notes extensive gaps in data around Aboriginal use of the area, per RenewEconomy. No field survey work has been done yet across the transmission investigation corridor either, with EDF relying on desktop assessment pending further study, according to Energy Storage News.

Long-Duration Storage and Approvals

Australia's grid planner has confirmed the country needs 12 gigawatts of new pumped hydro operating by 2050 to cover demand that batteries can't sustain beyond a few hours, and New South Wales has raised its own long-duration storage target to 42 gigawatt-hours by 2034, according to Tech Times, which cites Australia's 2026 Integrated System Plan. Wala Wala isn't alone in the queue. Yancoal's $1.8 billion Stratford Pumped Hydro project, offering 3.6 gigawatt-hours of storage, won state planning consent in July 2026, per Energy Storage News. EDF also has a stake in the 350 MW Lake Lyell project, currently responding to public submissions, while Alinta hopes to start construction on the 900 MW Oven Mountain project in 2028, and AGL and Acen are in early planning on the Muswellbrook and Phoenix projects respectively, RenewEconomy reported. EDF's current target is construction starting in early 2029, running four to five years, with commercial operation from mid-2033 and a projected operational life of about 100 years, according to Energy Storage News. Tech Times frames the federal approval process as the real chokepoint, noting the historical pace of pumped hydro approvals nationally has been slow, though the specific approval-rate figures behind that claim weren't detailed in available reporting. The conservation concerns here are documented and substantial. A critically endangered grassy woodland community and species like the Greater Glider and Regent Honeyeater are already in serious decline nationally, and EDF's own referral applies the precautionary principle to 66 of the 80 species found. RenewEconomy notes the project already faces local opposition, though it doesn't detail the substance of that opposition in available reporting. A project built specifically to enable more wind and solar on the grid is now running into the same species-by-species federal review that routinely snags pipelines, mines and transmission lines. Writing for the Epoch Times, Joseph Fournier argues Canada should move toward multi-use energy corridors with a single permit and single regulatory review, precisely to avoid the kind of project-by-project gridlock Wala Wala now faces in Australia. Whether Australia's federal environment minister moves Wala Wala through assessment fast enough to hit that 2029 construction start, given the scale of species and habitat findings in EDF's own referral, remains an open question.