AECOM appointed to huge solar plus battery storage project in South Australia

ADELAIDE (March18, 2019) – AECOM, a premier, fully-integrated global infrastructure firm, has been appointed as owner’s engineer to support the Solar River Project in the pre-financial close (FC) development phase, post-FC construction phase and delivery and compliance commissioning phases of the project.

AECOM will provide a full suite of owner’s engineer technical services including project management, owner’s site representative and superintendent services over the entire design, construction and commissioning phases of the project.

The Solar River Project in South Australia’s Mid North is one of the world’s largest solar power projects and one of the largest energy construction projects in Australia. The Solar River Project will include a 200-megawatt photovoltaic array comprising more than 630,000 solar panels along with a 100-megawatt battery, one of the largest batteries in the Southern Hemisphere. Once completed, the project’s capacity should be able to supply 90,000 South Australian homes with reliable and affordable energy.

“We are looking forward to contributing to this exciting and important project for South Australia, the local Ngadjuri Aboriginal Nation and Australia’s energy supply, which will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing clean energy to over 90,000 households,” said Rajesh Arora, technical director of AECOM’s Australia New Zealand Power and Industrial group.

AECOM has a strong track record of performing owner’s engineer roles on a large number of renewable-energy projects, including the Mount Emerald Wind Farm in Queensland, the Ararat and Murra Warra Wind Farms in Victoria, the Crookwell 2 Wind Farm in New South Wales and Willogoleche Wind Farm in South Australia.

“Solar River’s project, comprising solar panels, large scale storage and a supportive local community, is exactly the type of opportunities that South Australia needs to deliver affordable, reliable and clean electricity,” said Dan Van Holst Pellekaan, South Australia’s Minister for Energy and Mining. “The Marshall Government’s energy policies are attracting investment, creating more competition and reduce costs to households and businesses.”

The Solar River Project is a South Australian company based at the University of Adelaide’s ThincLab venture incubator. Further updates on the project will be available at www.srproject.com.au.