Snowy signs up new 90MW solar farm as part of retailing deal with BP

The government owned energy generator and retailer Snowy Hydro has signed a deal with Lightsource bp for a new solar farm in western NSW that will help deliver a 100 per cent renewable energy product to the oil giant’s network of retail outlets in NSW.

The new solar farm is the 90MW West Wyalong solar project, with Snowy Hydro signing up to take around two thirds of the output. It will be the second solar farm to be built by Lightsource bp in Australia, following the newly completed 200MW Wellington solar farm, which also has a long term contract with Snowy Hydro.

It has other projects in the pipeline, including the 250MW (DC) Wellington North project and the 210MW (DC) Woolooga solar project in Queensland.

Lightsource bp says Snowy Hydro will purchase two-thirds of the 238,000MWh generated annually from the West Wyalong solar farm through the 15-year PPA.

Under this arrangement Snowy-Hydro will in turn supply 23,000MWh of renewable energy annually, through Red Energy, to bp for 10 years to meet the power requirements of all its service stations throughout the state of New South Wales.

“We are delighted to be able to leverage our existing relationship with Snowy Hydro on our solar farm in Wellington, to sign this PPA with our West Wyalong project,” said Adam Pegg, the country manager of Lightsource bp .

“Being able to facilitate powering bp’s service stations in New South Wales with renewable electricity from our West Wyalong solar farm is an achievement which demonstrates our commitment to provide sustainable and affordable energy to our communities.”

Snowy Hydro CEO Paul Broad said in a statement: “We are pleased to be able to keep facilitating the deployment of renewable energy into the grid and providing innovative solutions to help our customers meet their sustainability needs.”