Western Australia's biggest PV project currently operational

Aug 21, 2020 01:32 PM ET
  • Risen Energy's 132 MW Merredin Solar Farm has actually been connected to the Western Australian grid.
Western Australia's biggest PV project currently operational
Image: Risen Energy

Risen Energy's 132 MW (DC) Merredin Solar Farm in Western Australia is currently up and running. It is the state's largest functional PV project.

The project lies on 460 hectares of previous farming and grazing country beside the 220 kV Western Power Merredin Terminal. It features 354,452 solar PV panels and has an expected result of 274 GWh of power every year, about enough to power 42,000 Western Australian homes.

After the staged online appointing was initiated in April, Risen worked very closely with the network company, Western Power, and also the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) via the process.

The project began in March last year and when building and construction began at full throttle it progressed rapidly towards conclusion. According to Risen, Merredin has been among the fastest builds of a solar farm ever seen in Australia, with the mechanical completion accomplished in just three months in collaboration with WA's Monford Group.

Risen Energy will at first go vendor on the Merredin Solar Farm and will supposedly try to secure a power acquisition agreement further down the line. The developer's other project in Australia-- the Yarranlea Solar Farm in Queensland-- will additionally operate on a merchant basis. This project has included an advanced power storage system created by the University of New South Wales (UNSW)-- a crossbreed of lithium batteries as well as hydrogen fuel cells, with DC loss discovery technology-- to deal with the duck contour.

The Merredin as well as Yarranlea solar farms become part of the Chinese business's ambitious plans to obtain more than 2 GW of solar projects in Australia.


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