The 150MW Suntop solar farm has obtained its registration from the Australian Energy Market Operator, and expects to begin “hold point” testing in coming days.
The news was released by contractor Bouygues, which announced on LinkedIn that its team had successfully completed first energy generation and received registration, “which means the solar farm is officially allowed to connect to the grid, and has completed the first test on the existing network.”
Suntop is expected to be at full capacity by the end of the year, and has a long term contract for two thirds of its output with online retailing giant Amazon, which at the time was hailed as the biggest corporate power purchase agreement signed with a solar farm in Australia.
Owner and developer Canadian Solar also confirmed that Suntop – located about 10kms west of Wellington – had achieved its full generator exemption on July 23.
“Energisation of the feeders back from the substation to the Inverters has progressed, along with the field hot commissioning works to the inverters and trackers,” it said.
“The Suntop Generator is scheduled to commence with Hold Point testing in early August. The project remains on schedule with target completion of all construction and commissioning activities in November 2021.”
Amazon is also buying 60MW of output from in Canadian Solar’s 110MW (ac) Gunnedah solar farm, also in New South Wales.
