Broken Hill 53MW solar plant nears full generation, as last PV modules installed

Australia’s second-largest utility-scale solar plant, the 53MW Broken Hill solar farm in New South Wales, is on track to be fully operational by the end of the year, after the last of the project’s advanced photovoltaic modules were successfully installed.

The developer of the project, First Solar, announced the milestone on Monday, a little under a month after the plant achieved first generation, when an initial 26 MW of renewable energy started feeding into the National Electricity Market.

Partnering First Solar on the $150 million project are AGL Energy (the plant’s owner), the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the NSW Government.

Together with the 102MW Nyngan Solar Plant, the completed Broken Hill Solar Farm will help produce approximately 360,000MWh of electricity annually – enough to power 50,000 average Australian homes.

AGL’s executive general manager of group operations, Doug Jackson said the was currently generating up to 27MW of renewable energy into the grid, with the remaining 26MW expected to be brought online later this month.

Jack Curtis, First Solar’s Regional Manager for Asia Pacific said the plant’s advanced Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) modules  – of which 677,760 are installed, so far – offered significant advantages over typical crystalline silicon modules, particularly in a hot climate like Broken Hill.

“Just six months after Australia’s largest solar plant at Nyngan was switched on, we are now another step closer to completing Australia’s two largest utility-scale solar plants in the same year,” Curtis said.

Ian Kay, the acting CEO of ARENA – which has contributed $166.7 million in funding to Nyngan and Broken Hill – pointed to the $350 million the agency, along with the CEFC, had available to accelerate further growth in the large-scale solar PV sector.

“There is a real sense of momentum driving large-scale solar in Australia today,” Kay said in a statement.

And federal environment minister Greg Hunt added his voice, too, to those commending this latest advancement at Broken Hill; even managing to claim some of the credit, via ARENA, despite the fact that the Abbott-led Coalition’s plans to dismantle ARENA.

“This ARENA-supported project is an excellent example of our commitment to boost renewables innovation in the 21st century and will help pave the way for more large-scale solar plants to be built across Australia,” Hunt said in a statement on Monday.

“This Government is delivering more than $15 billion in support for renewables and lower emissions.,” he said.