A massive 244-tonne transformer completes 2,165 km road trip to Australia’s largest solar project

Building a major wind or solar project is challenging at the best of times, but perhaps the most complex part of the equation is the logistics needed to actually get the equipment on site.

As Renew Economy wrote this week, the task of transporting hundreds or even thousands of oversized equipment presents a challenge for developers, logistics experts and local communities, and often requires road upgrades and movements in the dead of night.

One of the biggest and longest of these movements has just been completed, with a 244-tonne transformer completing a 2,165 km road trip from the port of Adelaide to northern NSW, and the site of Australia’s biggest solar project.

The transformer was delivered to the substation at the New England solar farm, developed and owned by Acen Renewables, and will pave the way for construction of a 320 megawatt second stage of that project, taking its total capacity to 720 MW, the biggest in the country – at least for now.

“This is the heaviest and largest transformer supplied to New England Solar, measuring 11m long and 4.4m high, and required an 18-axle modular platform trailer, with several prime movers at the front and back of its 70m convoy,” Acen Renewables wrote in a LinkedIn post.

“Getting it there was no small task,” added contractors Epec Group. “The overland route covered approximately 555 km to the New South Wales border, followed by a further 1,610 km to site.”

The delivery was made by Australian-owned heavy haulage transport company Ares Group again did a tremendous job helping to plan the logistics of this heavy-duty road trip and delivering the transformer to its destination.

Ares Group is also handling the deliveries of the 900 turbine parts that are being delivered by truck along the 400 km route from the Port of Newcastle to the project site at the Uungula wind farm near Wellington, in the state’s central west.

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