Sunraysia solar + storage facility moves closer as contractor chosen

One of the largest solar farms in the development pipeline for New South Wales – the battery storage ready 250MW Sunraysia solar farm – is one step closer to being realised, after ASX-listed engineering firm Decmil Group was tapped to build the project in the state’s Riverina district.

Decmil said in a statement on Tuesday that it has entered into a ~$275 million Memorandum of Understanding with the project’s developer, Maoneng Australia, to design and construct the Sunraysia project, which will be located around 17km south of the town of Balranald, and around 140km south east of Mildura.

Solar farm developer Maoneng, which has built the smaller 13MW Mugga Lane solar farm in the ACT (pictured above), received planning approval for the project in June, and had aimed to begin construction by the end of the year, and to have it completed by the summer of 2018/19.

According to the statement from Decmil, these dates have been pushed back slightly, with construction not expected to commence until the end of March 2018, soon after the awarding of the EPC contract, which will be subject to agreement on commercial terms and the project successfully achieving financial close.

As we reported in June, Maoneng has flagged that She Sunraysia project will be made “storage ready”, with the developer said to be considering adding battery storage at a later date.

Decmil’s ASX announcement this week seems to back that up, itself noting that Sunraysia will be one of the first solar farms in NSW to use batteries to store energy.

“This will provide greater energy reliability and allow the solar farm to produce electricity during periods of peak demand rather than only during sunlight hours,” the Decmil statement said.