One of Australia’s biggest solar farms, the 440 megawatt (MW) Culcairn project developed by Neoen Australia in the South East Riverina Region of New South Wales, has officially begun operations.
The Australian arm of the French renewables and battery developer announced the milestone on Wednesday – Culcairn is its second-largest solar asset, globally – just over two years after kicking off construction in late 2023.
“Built in under two years with 600 workers at peak construction … and using innovative site equipment, Culcairn Solar Farm has benefitted from the hard work and esprit de corps between Bouygues Construction Australia, Equans Solar & Storage, Lumea, Transgrid, Neoen and a number of contractors and workers from the Riverina region,” the company said on LinkedIn.
“Culcairn is our second largest solar asset globally and will produce enough energy to power 160,000 homes in a year. We are proud of the contributions it will now make to help New South Wales in its target of reducing carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.”
Built on 1,000 hectares of land approximately 45km north of Albury and 70km south of Wagga Wagga, the solar farm consists of nearly 760,000 solar panels. During peak construction the project employed 600 workers.
The completion of Culcairn means it can start delivering on its power purchase agreement – a four-year deal to supply 50 per cent of the project’s output to Smartest Energy, to retail to commercial and industrial customers.
In its LinkedIn post on Wednesday, Neoen Australia also thanked the project’s host landholders and First Nations custodians of the country.
“Located on Wiradjuri Country … Culcairn Solar Farm is a reality today because of the resilience and commitment shown by our host landowners,” the post says. “They have stood with us at every step of the journey over the last seven years to create a greener future for our kids.”
In addition to the solar farm, Neoen is also building a big battery at the site – a battery which has only grown in size as plans have continually been updated.
When the Culcairn solar farm was first approved by the NSW planning department back in March of 2021, approval was also granted for a 100 MW/200 MWh battery.
Neoen won approval in 2024 for a major increase in the project’s battery capacity – to 350 MW and up to 800 MWh – to align the battery specifications to that of the solar farm, and to “increase the ability of the (Culcairn) project to contribute to grid stability, reliability and affordable energy supply.”
Last year, the company got the all-clear to expand the battery’s storage capacity even further, to 904 MWh – a change that can be made without increasing the number of battery containers, due to the higher density of the battery units.
Neoen is currently undertaking a procurement process to select a battery supplier who will also act as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, and is currently aiming to begin construction in the middle of the year.
The company expects construction of the big battery to take around two years and employ around 160 workers during peak construction.
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