NSW 132MW Nevertire solar farm begins construction

Another large-scale solar project is officially underway in New South Wales, after UK hedge fund subsidiary, Elliott Green Power, confirmed on Monday that its 132MW Nevertire Solar Farm was in the early stages of construction.

Nevertire – formerly owned by Epuron – is being built near Warren, in the state’s north-west, by EPC contractor Biosar, after reaching financial close in May, an Elliott Green Power spokesperson told RE.

For EPG, the NSW project takes the amount of solar projects under construction to more than 300MW, including two south-east Queensland projects – the 98MW Susan River and the 78MW Childers solar farms – which it bought from ESCO Pacific in January.

Construction of the Susan and Childers solar farms – which is also being done by Biosar – is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018, Elliott GP said, while Nevertire is slated to be finished in the first half of 2019.

For NSW, the Nevertire project is part of what has been a big solar rush for the state, with nearly a dozen solar farms approved by the government across 2017 alone, including Maoneng’s impressive 200MW Sunraysia solar farm project near Balranald in western NSW.

ESCO Pacific’s 170MW Finley Solar Farm in the Riverina was the first NSW PV project to get approval in 2018, and last week was the subject of a 7-year power purchase agreement with BlueScope Steel, which agreed to take the bulk of its output to power its Port Kembla steelworks.