Construction begins on 400MW solar farm in central-west NSW, with battery to follow

Construction of a 400MW solar farm – and potentially a 200MWh big battery – will go ahead in central New South Wales, with developer ACEN Australia making a final investment decision on the project after securing a connection to the grid.

ACEN Australia says the final go-ahead for the Stubbo Solar project in the NSW Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone follows the signing of a connection agreement with Lumea – the commercial arm of network company Transgrid.

The renewables developer says it has also locked in a PV module supply contract this week, and finalised other key contracts for the project to progress, following a funding boost from a debt raise last month.

The $600 million debt raise attracted a $75 million investment from the federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation, to help fast-track the delivery of ACEN’s 8GW Australian renewables pipeline of solar, wind, battery and pumped hydro.

ACEN Australia CEO Anton Rohner says the finalisation and signing of a network connection agreement with Lumea was a “major milestone” in moving to the committed stage of the project.

“The ability to get the connection agreement done illustrates the value of ACEN Australia’s strategy of connecting into secure and robust parts of the Transgrid Network,” Rohner said.

“[Stubbo] will be ACEN Australia’s second 400 MW solar farm following the construction of New England Solar which is currently being commissioned,” he added.

“Again we have been able to close and commit to a project on a merchant basis and, in the case of Stubbo, do this on our balance sheet.”

Big plans for Australia

AC Energy Corp, or ACEN, is the listed energy platform of Philippines-based Ayala Group, with just under 4GW of generation capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia, 87% of which is from renewables.

The company took a hold in the Australian market through the acquisition of UPC\AC Renewables, with a majority share that was increased from 50% to 80% in March, and plans to take 100% ownership by early 2023.

The latest buy-up of the company led to the rebranding of UPC\AC Renewables to ACEN Australia.

Among its more notable projects in Australia are the 400MWh big battery, the first stage of which is currently being built alongside what will be – for a time at least – the biggest solar PV project in Australia, the 720MW New England solar farm in NSW.

The company also has a number of massive – and in some cases somewhat controversial – wind projects it is seeking to build in Tasmania.

This includes the up to 1.26GW project proposed for Tasmania’s north-east, that in August was declared a Major Project by the state Liberal government, making it part of a streamlined development assessment process overseen by an independent panel.

The North East wind project would be built across two sites – Waterhouse in the west and Rushy Lagoon in the east. The traditional owners of the lands are the Leenerrerter, Pinterrairer, Pyemmairrenerpairrener and Trawlwoolway people.

Elsewhere on the island state, ACEN Australia is also proposing the Jim’s Plain and Robbins Island wind farms, which could have a combined capacity of up to 1GW if they go ahead.

ACEN says construction of Stubbo solar farm will start in late 2022 and create up to 400 jobs, and then 10 ongoing jobs, post-construction.

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