New 150 MW solar farm finished “ahead of schedule”, the last of state’s first renewable auction winners

A new 150 megawatt solar farm – the first stage of what will become a solar and battery hybrid project – has reached completion in the north west of Victoria, ahead of schedule, according to its contractors.

The solar farm at the Carwarp Energy Park, near Mildura, has been on line since late last year, but has now achieved “substantial completion”, according to the main contractors Gransolar. The project is owned by Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar.

Carwarp was originally pitched as a 100 MW solar plant, and was one of six projects that won a contract under the state’s VRET auctions way back in 2018. It is the last of those to be built.

Grid issues in the so-called “rhombus of regret” in north-west Victoria limited new developments in the region and the project was held up before then re-emerging as a bigger solar and battery hybrid. It has a long term offtake deal with an unnamed company. It has approvals for a 120 MW hybrid battery.

Gransolar, which announced it was awarded the contract in March last year, says it has now completed 14 large-scale PV and battery energy storage projects in Australia and is currently building another three projects totalling 850 MWdc and 650 megawatt hours of storage capacity.

“Carwarp Energy Park reaching commercial operation demonstrates our ability to develop and deliver high-quality, large-scale renewable infrastructure safely and efficiently,” said Dylan Marx, the CEO of Recurrent Energy.

“Carwarp represents a strong example of successful partnership and project delivery, creating lasting benefits for local communities while contributing to Australia’s energy transition and a cleaner, more resilient energy system.”

The Carwarp solar farm featured 243,000 high- efficiency Canadian Solar TOPCon modules, AxoneDuo Infinity single-axis trackers designed by PV Hardware, and is connect to the new terminal station via a 6.7 km 220 kV overhead line built by Green Grid Connect, also part of the Gransolar Group.

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