Australia’s biggest solar farm takes hit from delays caused by heavy rain

The owners of Australia’s biggest solar farm have reported a significant loss of potential earnings in 2023 as the result of construction delays caused by heavy rains in the region.

Acen Renewables, a listed company that is part of the Philippine-based Ayala Group, has completed construction of the 400 MW New England solar farm near Uralla.

That competes with Neoen’s Western Down solar farm in Queensland as the biggest in the country, but the company is building a 320 MW second stage at New England that will give it unambiguous claims to be the biggest in the country – at least until an even bigger solar project is built in Queensland at either Bulli Creek or Upper Calliope.

Acen Renewables is also planning a 400 MWh battery at the same site.

In a presentation to analysts this week after the release of its annual results, Acen Renewables reveals a 1.1 billion Philippine peso loss of anticipated earnings (around $A30 million) from the New England solar farm because of construction delays caused by heavy rains.

Its report says the first stage of the New England solar farm is “done with construction but still undergoing final testing with AEMO.” It has, nevertheless, been operating at full capacity in recent months.

The project is expected to deliver around 1,050 gigawatt hours of production a year, and managed 510 GWh in 2023 as it ramped up production.

It says it earned revenue of 829 million pesos from this output, or $22 million, suggesting an average price of around $43 a megawatt hour, which – according to OpenNEM – is around the average price for utility scale solar over the past year.

Acen Renewables has this week also announced a long term power purchase agreement with SmartestEnergy for part of the output of New England 1. It has an underwriting agreement with the NSW government – known as a Long Term Energy Services Agreement (LTESA) – which provides an effective floor price for the output.

The company is also building the 400 MW Stubbo solar farm, which it says was nearly half built at the end of February and should be in full operation by the second half of 2025.

It has also signed a major deal with Rio Tinto and Yindjibarndi Energy for the development of multiple gigawatts of wind and solar and battery projects in the Pilbara.

Australia is the company’s biggest market outside the Phillipines, and in total it has 3.4 GW of new capacity under construction, with 1.7 GW completed this year.

Acen Renewables says it hopes to lift its capacity to more than 8 GW each in the Phillipines and Australia.