Neoen says Australia’s biggest solar farm “on track” despite module supply issues

French-based renewables and storage developer Neoen says the 400MW Western Downs solar farm, the largest in the country currently either built or under construction, is “on track” to be completed within the next 12 months despite the global module supply crunch.

Neoen acknowledged that the supply chain problems was adding to “painful” rises in costs and challenges for deliveries, but it was confident that Western Downs would be completed later this year or in the first quarter of 2022.

If there are delays, Neoen CEO Xavier Barbaro said the company was protected by contractual arrangements that would allow for the payment of liquidated damages, as it had claimed with delays in some smaller solar farms in NSW, and the Bulgana wind and battery project in Victoria.

Barbaro said some, but not all of the solar modules are on site, and the company hopes to begin some generation “soon”. The solar farm was formally connected last October.

The Western Downs solar farm is of key interest to the Australian solar industry because it is the biggest in the country, and is being built at a delicate time for the industry in terms of supply chains and connection issues and ongoing challenges with project contractors.

Its main EPC contractor is the Indian-based Sterling & Wilson, which has also been working on the Columboola and Gangarri solar farms in Queensland, and the solar component of the Port Augusta renewable energy park for Iberdrola – none of which have been fully commissioned to date.

There have been rumours, too, about the future of other EPC contractors in the industry, extending the issues that have plagued the industry for many years, resulting in the collapse of one major firm, RCR, numerous subcontractors and the withdrawal from the industry of others.

“We will see the rate at which modules are delivered to Australia but what I can tell you is that we have a full turnkey contract and if there are some delays we should be covered by liquidated damages,” Neoen CEO Xavier Barbaro said in a conference call with analysts overnight at the release of its annual revenues.

“We do hope, of course to have as much capacity as possible in operation at the end of Q4 2022. But I cannot give you more indication than that today.”

Western Downs – most of which is contracted to the state-owned CleanCo – is one of a number of landmark projects being built by Neoen, regarded as the most successful renewables and storage developer in the country in recent years.

It has also begun work on the first 412MW wind farm stage of Goyder South, the start of what will be the country’s biggest grid-connected wind, solar and battery hybrid project, and on the 100MW, two hour battery in Canberra. It is also building the 157MW Kaban wind farm in north Queensland.

In the past year, it completed the biggest battery in Australia, the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery, and the expansion of the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Ausralia.