Karadoc solar farm starts generating in Victoria, becoming state’s biggest

The Karadoc solar farm south of Mildura in north-west Victoria has begun generating  to the grid, pipping the recently connected Bannerton solar park as the biggest in the state.

The Karadoc solar farm, owned by Bay-Wa, is rated at 112MW (DC) and 90MW (AC), and just pips the Bannerton solar park (110MW DC and 88MW AC) as the biggest in the state.

The output from Karadoc has been contracted by brewer CUB as part of that company’s plans to source the equivalent of 100 per cent of its electricity needs through renewable energy.

It will be soon be joined by another Bay-Wa project, the 106MW DC and 81MW AC Yatpool solar farm just 20km away that is due to be “energised in late November,, and then the 88MW Wemen solar farm.

It will mean that Victoria will soon have six large scale solar farms on line – Bannerton,  Karadoc, Yatpool and Wemen – as well as the already complete Ganawarra (50MW) and Swan Hill (15MW) solar farms – and two battery storage installations are also due to be complete and ready for service before the official start of summer on December 1.

The 30MW/30MWh Ballarat battery is located next to an important network junction, and was formally inaugurated this week, while the 25MW/50MWh Ganawarra battery is located next to the solar farm of the same name.

The state also has a number of wind farms under construction, including the 530MW Stockyard Hill, the 225MW Murra Warra, the 320MW Moorabool, and the 204MW Bulgana wind farm (which will also have a 21MW/34MWh Tesla battery to provide 100 per cent renewable power to a new Nectar Farms glasshouse).

And there are at least another two solar farms in construction,  the Nurmurkah solar farm and what will take the mantle of the state’s bigger solar farm, the Kiamal solar project, which is installing synchronous condensers to ease network constraints and pave the way for other renewable energy projects to join the grid.

And there are the three solar farms and three wind farms totalling 928MW that will also be built as a result of the recent Victoria government renewable energy tender.