MPower secures grid connection offer for first of 20 small solar farms

Listed renewable energy developer MPower says it has secured a grid connection offer for a 5MW solar farm in Narromine in central New South Wales, the first of 20 planned small solar farms the company intends to build across the grid at a cost of $150 million.

MPower announced last month that it had acquired the first two projects in its larger Build Own Operate portfolio of twenty 5MW renewable energy projects – including Narromine and another project at Mangalore in Victoria.

It now says it has a connection offer from local network owner Essential Energy for the 5MW Narromine solar farm, which it says is one one of the last hurdles before it reaches shovel-ready status.

“We are continuing to aggressively advance our Build Own Operate portfolio and are making excellent progress with financing, project development works and continuously building our project pipeline,” said CEO Nathan Wise.

Located approximately 40-kilometres west of Dubbo, the Narromine solar project was developed by ITP Renewables and is expected to be shovel ready within the next three months and operating some time in the second half of 2022.

It will consist of 12,000 bifacial PV modules with the capacity to generate over 14,000MWh of electricity in its first year.