Numurkah solar farm, to help power steel works, Melbourne trams, begins production

Neoen Australia’s Numurkah solar farm has begun sending power to Victoria’s grid, making good on landmark deals to power both the Laverton steel works and Melbourne’s network of trams.

The $198 million facility – rated at 100MW (AC), making it the largest in the state to date – kicked off generation right on schedule on May 7, as is illustrated by the chart below  provided by Paul McArdle from Global Roam, the providers of our popular NEM-Watch widget.

As we reported here, the construction of the project near Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley, was underpinned by a ground-breaking deal signed with Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance.

Prior to that, it had also signed a deal with the Victorian government for the supply of renewable energy certificates towards its tram network.

The project was also significant for marking the achievement of the first Gigawatt of projects in Australia for French developer Neoen – counting those projects both under construction or in operation. Neoen also owns the Tesla big battery in South Australia, which they officially refer to as the Hornsdale Power Reserve.

As Neoen Australia chief Franck Woitiez put it at the time, the project – in partnership with Gupta’s SIMEC Zen Energy – has also served to prove “that collectively, we are moving towards our aim of delivering sustainable, reliable and competitive energy to all Australians.”

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which is provided $56 million in loans towards the project, described it as a “path-breaking example of how solar energy can deliver a cost-effective solution for Victoria’s energy-intensive manufacturers.”