115 MW of utility-scale solar plants planned for western New South Wales

Share

RenewEconomy can reveal that Neoen plans to install one 10 MW plant, one 15 MW plant and three 30 MW plants in and around the cities and towns of Dubbo, Narromine, Griffith, Parkes and Gilgandra.

According to Neoen Managing Director Franck Woitiez, the solar plants – the project is called the Dubbo Solar Hub – are attractive because they will be close to consumption centers, are in areas with good solar irradiance, and are unlikely to have any local opposition as the projects are ideally located and would benefit to the local community.

Woitiez says the planning approvals for the projects are well advanced, and connection studies are also on-going.

"We leveraged our experience from overseas and came to the conclusion that solar between 5 MW-30 MW is easy to develop, deploy, operate and integrate into the grid," he says.

"Being close to consumption also makes sense in a way that you don’t increase transmission costs and you minimise losses. This shall enhance those projects in the best economical way."

The Neoen solar plants would make solar the largest local source of generation in western New South Wales (NSW), which already has the some of the highest penetration rates of rooftop solar (Dubbo was once proclaimed the solar capital of Australia), and with the large-scale solar plants being built by First Solar at Nyngan (102 MW) and Broken Hill (53 MW).

On top of that, an alliance of western NSW councils has called for A$200 million of funding to build a range of small to medium-sized solar plants, that would include solar thermal as well as solar PV. In addition, Vast Solar has begun construction of a 6 MWth (1.1 MWe) concentrated solar thermal power station with three hours storage – the first stand alone plant of its type to be built in Australia- near Forbes, also in western NSW.

Woitiez says the western NSW solar projects are, however, dependent on the government committing to the current 41,000 GWh renewable energy target, as are its other renewable energy investments in Australia.

Neoen recently teamed with Megawatt Capital to buy the undeveloped 270 MW Hornsdale wind project in South Australia, and is believed to have tendered a 100 MW first stage into the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government's wind auction.

Neoen and Megawatt Capital are also looking to complete the purchase or more renewable energy projects from Investec, including two solar projects in Western Australia.

Neoen is also using Australia as a base for Asian investment, particularly for the Philippines, where there is a growing appetite for solar.

Neoen has also just landed a contract to build a 74 MW solar project in El Salvador for a price of US$102/MWh – and it believes that this price is something that is achievable in Australia, if the large-scale solar industry takes off and the cost of finance comes down.

However, he said it would require more appetite for solar from utilities in peaking periods – something that is already happening in the U.S. – and a willingness to keep a "decent" RET from the government. "That is the only way forward," he said.

Other international solar companies have made similar warnings. Recurrent Energy has already packed its bags, despite having a A$2 billion pipeline in Australia, First Solar has warned it will take its investments elsewhere, and others – including Australia’s Infigen Energy and Pacific Hydro – have said the same.

Woitiez said Neoen is committed to spending at least A$250 million in the next coming years in Australia, provided that the policy doesn’t create any sovereign risk threats.

Source: RenewEconomy. Reproduced with permission.

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.