Victoria solar farm shut down after fire in on-site inverters, must mow grass

Energy Safe Victoria has shut down the 20 megawatt (MW) Raywood solar farm in Victoria following a fire that broke out late last week in one of the on-site inverters. 

The fire broke out in a Sungrow inverter and spread a short way into the long grass under the panels, the authority said. The authority is investigating the cause of the fire, but has already directed the solar farm, in Raywood which is near Bendigo, to close until it cuts the grass back below 100mm.

Ten units from six Country Fire Authority stations attended the fire at the Mcqualters Road solar facility around 5.50pm on Thursday last week. 

The Raywood community was warned about black, toxic smoke drifting over the town, but the fire was under control by 8.30pm. Network operator Powercor was on site to disconnect the solar farm from the grid.

ACEnergy did all of the planning applications for the small solar farm, securing a planning permit in 2020, before selling it to Sungrow in 2021. 

It is not to be confused with South Energy’s 203MW Campbell Forest solar project, which used to go by the same name. 

The planning permit approved a site with up to 39 Sungrow inverters, technology that converts the DC electricity made by the solar panels into the AC power that flows through the grid

The fire is the second inverter conflagration in just over a month. 

In mid-January a fire broke out at the Mannum 2, owned by Epic Energy, in South Australia’s Riverland region.

That project was being commissioned and a subcontractor suffered burns. The damage bill for that fire is estimated to be around $250,000.