Spain’s Gransolar wins contract to build 200MW solar farm in Queensland

Spanish group Gransolar has won the contract to build the 200MW Blue Grass solar farm in Queensland, landing its fifth large scale solar project in th country.

Gransolar says its construction subsidiary GRS has signed the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract with Blue Grass developer  X-Elio. The solar farm is expected to produce more than 420,000MWh of electricity a year from its 385,000 solar modules.

It’s the fifth largest scale solar project in Australia, taking its combined capacity to 550MW. It recently completed the 69.7MW Goonumbla solar farm in NSW for FRV (pictured above) and is also completing the 39MW Molong solar farm. It also won contracts for the Lilyvale and Winton solar projects.

“We are growing at a good pace in the country, working hard to be part of the sustainability goals set in the Australian renewable calendar and to demonstrate that we are a great partner to carry out projects in a timely manner,” GRS managing director in Australia Carlos Lopez said in a statement.

“2021 is about to be a great year for GRS in Australia”.

Gransolar and GRS are part of a “second wave” of EPC contractors entering the Australian market, following the shake-up – largely caused by new rules, connection delays and hefty claims of liquidated damages – that resulted in big losses and saw some foreign players and many domestic companies abandon the market altogether, or choose to focus on less risk “balance of plant” contracts.

Lopez says the Blue Grass solar farm will create 400 jobs through the construction phase, and – like the recently completed Goonumbla and Molong projects – will be largely locally sourced.

“Having the local workforce was critical as borders closed in Australia and around the world,” he said in an earlier statement.

“Another key factor is working closely with networks and regulators as soon as a project begins to avoid any surprises or delays.  We have worked on solar projects around the world and bring this knowledge and experience to the Australian market to bring projects online as quickly and safely as possible.

“I was impacted by the travel restrictions and have been stuck in Spain, so we had to quickly adapt – like all businesses have had to in the last few months – moving to video conferencing and working Australian hours from Spain,” he said.