South Australia’s second biggest solar farm begins production

South Australia’s 108MW Tailem Bend solar farm started sending electricity to the grid last week, kicking off operations for the state’s second large scale solar project.

As we reported here, the project, located about 95kms south-east of Adelaide, was developed by Singapore-based Vena Energy and has contracted all of its output to the federal government-owned generator and retailer Snowy Hydro for 22 years.

It is expected to reach full production in mid-April.

The $170 million Tailem Bend project joins Bungala solar farm near Port Augusta as the first large-scale solar projects to begin production in South Australia, where the emphasis has been on large-scale wind behind-the-meter rooftop solar.

The solar farm will only be allowed to export a maximum of 95MW (AC) at any one time as the result of rules laid down by AEMO to ensure such facilities can deliver sufficient “reactive power”, and not diminish the grid’s reliability.